In the fall of 2007 Encana Oil & Gas (USA) Inc. was planning to fracture stimulate wells in a play that has been ranked among the biggest natural gas discoveries in the history of the United States.

JULY 2, 2010 - HOUSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL
BY Tanya Rutledge SPECIAL TO HOUSTON BUSINESS JOURNAL

While many businesses struggle to attract angel investors and venture capital dollars when they are in start-up mode, MicroSeismic Inc. never had that problem.
The company, which provides microseismic monitoring and passive seismic imaging primarily to oilfield customers, had early — and eager — financial support from the venture capital community.

Monitoring of hydraulic fracturing operations has proved particularly valuable in shale gas development. Despite modern geomechanical modeling technology, there is typically a huge difference between the theoretical paths of formation fractures and their actual paths. Most operators use monitoring techniques to observe the actual propagation of hydraulically stimulated fractures so they can optimize successive stages in multistage operations. In some cases, real-time monitoring allows geohazards to be avoided by halting the treatment before the hazard is intersected or by pumping a diverter to “steer” the fracture into other reservoir volumes.