Continuous Microseismic Record Analysis for Reservoir Hydrofracture Treatments

Abstract

Using continuous microseismic records is a novel technique for better monitoring and understanding the mechanics of fracture network evolution during reservoir stimulation, and to provide a tool for diagnostic evaluation of recorded microseismic data. Hydrofracture stimulations are widely used to optimize production volumes and extraction rates in enhanced geothermal systems, petroleum reservoirs and block-caving mines. Microseismic monitoring is now becoming a standard tool for evaluating the position and evolution of a given treatment, principally by source locating microseismic hypocenters and visualizing these with respect to the treatment volume and infrastructure. The continuous microseismic amplitude record includes the full history of the seismic energy response of the rock mass recorded at a given geophone. We present case studies illustrating the use of this technique for supplementing microseismic locations to better understand the evolution of fracture treatments, and to diagnose the condition of a given data set, so as to design criteria for more effective processing of the discrete microseismic events.