Identifying dominant fracture orientations
AssigneeHalliburton Energy Services, Inc.
InventorsJianfu Ma, Avi Lin, Harold Grayson Walters
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems, methods, and software can be used to identify properties of fractures in a subterranean zone. In some aspects, a basic plane orientation is determined for each of a plurality of basic planes. The basic planes are defined by coplanar subsets of microseismic event data from a fracture treatment of a subterranean zone. The quantity of the basic plane orientations in each of a plurality of ranges is calculated. In some implementations, a histogram is displayed to indicate the quantity of basic plane orientations in each of the orientation ranges. A dominant fracture orientation is identified for the subterranean zone based on one or more of the identified quantities.
Claims20
A computer-implemented method for identifying dominant fracture orientations in a subterranean zone, the method comprising:
- receiving microseismic event data associated with a fracture treatment of a subterranean zone;
- identifying coplanar subsets of microseismic events in the received microseismic event data, each of the coplanar subsets comprising a non-collinear triplet of microseismic events in the received microseismic event data;
- determining a basic plane orientation for each of a plurality of basic planes defined by the coplanar subsets, each basic plane orientation being defined by the non-collinear triplet of microseismic events in a respective one of the coplanar subsets;
- calculating, by data processing apparatus, the quantity of the basic plane orientations in each of a plurality of orientation ranges;
- identifying a dominant fracture orientation for the subterranean zone based on one or more of the quantities;
- identifying a cluster of microseismic events associated with the identified dominant fracture orientation;
- generating a fracture plane based on the identified dominant fracture orientation and the identified cluster of microseismic events associated with the identified dominant fracture orientation;
- and
- displaying a histogram of the basic plane orientations, wherein the histogram indicates the quantity of basic plane orientations in each of the orientation ranges.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by data processing apparatus, perform operations comprising:
- receiving microseismic event data associated with a fracture treatment of a subterranean zone;
- identifying coplanar subsets of microseismic events in the received microseismic event data, each of the coplanar subsets comprising a non-collinear triplet of microseismic events in the received microseismic event data;
- determining a basic plane orientation for each of a plurality of basic planes defined by the coplanar subsets, each basic plane orientation being defined by the non-collinear triplet of microseismic events in a respective one of the coplanar subsets;
- calculating the quantity of the basic plane orientations in each of a plurality of orientation ranges;
- identifying a dominant fracture orientation for the subterranean zone based on one or more of the quantities;
- identifying a cluster of microseismic events associated with the identified dominant fracture orientation;
- generating a fracture plane based on the identified dominant fracture orientation and the identified cluster of microseismic events associated with the identified dominant fracture orientation;
- and
- displaying a two-dimensional histogram of the basic plane orientations, wherein the histogram indicates the quantity of basic plane orientations in each of the orientation ranges.
A system comprising:
- a computer-readable medium that stores microseismic event data associated with a fracture treatment of a subterranean zone;
- and
- data processing apparatus operable to:
- receive microseismic event data associated with the fracture treatment of the subterranean zone;
- identify coplanar subsets of microseismic events in the received microseismic event data, each of the coplanar subsets comprising a non-collinear triplet of microseismic events in the received microseismic event data;
- determine a basic plane orientation for each of a plurality of basic planes defined by the coplanar subsets, each basic plane orientation being defined by the non-collinear triplet of microseismic events in a respective one of the coplanar subsets;
- calculate the quantity of the basic plane orientations in each of a plurality of orientation ranges;
- identify a dominant fracture orientation for the subterranean zone based on one or more of the quantities;
- identify a cluster of microseismic events associated with the identified dominant fracture orientation;
- generate a fracture plane based on the identified dominant fracture orientation and the identified cluster of microseismic events associated with the identified dominant fracture orientation;
- and
- display a histogram of the basic plane orientations, wherein the histogram indicates the quantity of basic plane orientations in each of the orientation ranges.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.