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Geological Interpretation &
Source Mechanism Identification
The results of microseismic monitoring of hydraulic fracture treatments are significantly more valuable when a high-confidence interpretation of the results is also provided. MSI offers geologic analysis of induced microseismicity, which includes rock mechanics, to help improve understanding of what processes may have been in play during the stimulation. Incorporating available geologic information into the results leads to a more comprehensive interpretation providing a predictive capability for frac behavior in subsequent wells.
The geologic and rock mechanical analysis helps address important issues such as whether microseismicity trends are parallel to the maximum stress orientation, if existing natural fractures are being reactivated, the significance of multiple trends in the microseismicity, and what failure mechanisms are present. Analysis of geologic structures in the area of the reservoir can provide useful information to support or eliminate interpretation of apparent trends as stimulated fractures, identify failure mechanisms or mechanical events not related to hydraulic fracturing, and provide an explanation for fracture trends that deviate from the expected orientation of the in-situ stress.
With the inclusion of the source mechanism inversion analysis, a complete definition of the way in which the rock actually broke is derived, so that the reason for the observed fracture trends can be explained. MSI’s full source mechanism inversion provides the orientation of the fault or fracture plane as well as the direction of slip, and information on the tensile and volumetric portions of the failure mechanisms. The integration of the mechanism results with the geology allows them to be mutually refined to converge on the best solution. Deployment of the FracStar® and the Buried Arrays enable MSI to provide a comprehensive source mechanism analysis that is not possible with downhole monitoring.
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