PASSIVE SEISMIC MONITORING – YOUR CHALLENGES, OUR SOLUTIONS

Microseismic, Inc. (MSI) takes an active approach to passive seismic monitoring of hydraulic fracturing operations. We also actively listen to our customers’ specific challenges and respond with practical, innovative solutions. See what we offer below; if your challenge isn’t listed here, or if you’d like more information, give us a call.

Challenge: Optimizing or increasing production.

Solution: MSI’s FracStar® and BuriedArray data acquisition programs can indicate fracture orientation and lateral extent of asymmetrical hydraulic fractures in vertical wells, information which can be used to design the optimal spacing and design of stimulations for subsequent horizontal wells. Read More…

Challenge: Detecting natural fractures away from the borehole.

Solution: MSI has proven that its surface-based geophone arrays, coupled with the beam-forming process available through PSET® technology, can accurately characterize the fractures across an entire reservoir, an important development for wells in which borehole image logs are unavailable. Read More…

Challenge: Avoiding faults during fracture stimulation treatments.

Solution: Pre-existing natural faults that intersect the wellbore may cannibalize frac fluid and proppant during a frac job, preventing some stages from being effectively stimulated and resulting in lower-than-expected production. MSI’s FracStar® surface array can detect these faults during a frac job, helping operators avoid them during future stimulation activities and allowing the stimulation and subsequent production to be optimized. Read More…

Challenge: Detecting downhole mechanical failures.

Solution: MSI’s data analysis of microseismic events during hydraulic fracturing incorporates source mechanism inversion. For one frac job in the Marcellus, this inversion was able to differentiate between shear events associated with fracture propagation in the reservoir, and a non-shear event related to a mechanical failure on the casing. Read More…

Challenge: Exploring frontier areas.

Solution: In frontier areas that are topographically rugged or under stringent regulations from federal authorities, conventional seismic may be difficult and expensive to shoot. MSI was able to successfully use its passive seismic measurement techniques to survey a frontier area over a 12-month period, recording a catalog of more than 6000 events and identifying structures of exploration interest. Read More…

Challenge: Reducing reservoir model uncertainty.

Solution: For some reservoirs in which stress anisotropy is low, the presence of natural fractures can produce microseismicity distributions that make predicting fracturing behavior for subsequent treatments challenging. MSI has successfully used microseismic event signals to constrain fracture location and character, and then created a base model for the enhanced porosity of the fracture treatment to test post-fracturing flow behavior. The ultimate result was better constraints on fracture length, height and aperture, useful parameters that improved subsequent well placement and optimized production rates.