3D Analytical Modeling of Hydraulic Fracturing Stimulated Reservoir Volume

Abstract

AbstractAn easy to use analytical 3D model is developed to simulate the growth of stimulated reservoir volume (SRV) with time once a hydraulic fracturing job is started in an anisotropic poroelastic medium. In the proposed method, diffusivity coefficients in three dimensions are determined first by calibrating the model with an actual 3D microseismic-event cloud. Then the geometry of SRV is predicted under different stimulation conditions. The method permits studying the geometry of hydraulic-fracturing SRVs in both vertical and horizontal wells. The analytical model is corroborated with the use of a numerical simulator.The proposed method is important because in unconventional low-permeability reservoirs, such as shale and tight gas reservoirs, productivity depends primarily on permeability of the SRV and the reservoir area contacted by the SRV. Microseismic monitoring has been shown to be a useful technology to study the characteristics of hydraulic fractures. As such, the optimum is to constrain the analytical 3D model developed in this study with the use of microseismic data. It is concluded that this easy to use, yet accurate analytical model, is a viable tool for analyzing the orientation and geometry of hydraulic-fracturing SRV and for predicting other SRVs in the same reservoir. Examples of applications which can be reproduced easily in a spread sheet are presented in detail.