Microseismic Monitoring Quality-Control (QC) Reports as an Interpretative Tool for Nonspecialists

Abstract

Abstract In the oilfield industry microseismic monitoring is widely applied to determine induced fracture network geometry and stress changes in reservoirs. The basic result is usually a map of the distribution of the microseismic events describing the area influenced by injection/production of reservoir fluids, e.g hydraulic fracturing. As every microearthquake event, i.e. ‘dot’ on the map, is processed individually, it has its own level of location accuracy. To prevent any misinterpretations based on events with low accuracy, Quality-Control (QC-) reports can provide important information regarding location accuracy and other attributes which help in the overall interpretation of the maps, in addition to the standard event location. However, much of the information that is needed to assess the quality of the data is very specialized and technical, so that the figures presented in the QC- reports often appear complicated and are not easy to read for the non-specialist. By introducing easy-to-read figures that summarize the essential information, these reports have become more useful to the occasional user.