Interpretation of Microseismicity Resulting from Gel and Water Fracturing of Tight Gas Reservoirs

We provide a comparative analysis of the spatio-temporal dynamics of hydraulic fracturing-induced microseismicity resulting from gel and water treatments. We show that the growth of a hydraulic fracture and its corresponding microseismic event cloud can be described by a model which combines geometry- and diffusion-controlled processes. It allows estimation of important parameters of fracture and reservoir from microseismic data, and contributes to a better understanding of related physical processes. We further develop an approach based on this model and apply it to data from hydraulic fracturing experiments in the Cotton Valley tight gas reservoir. The treatments were performed with different parameters such as the type of treatment fluid, the injection flow rate, the total volume of fluid and of proppant. In case of a gel-based fracturing, the spatio-temporal evolution of induced microseismicity shows signatures of fracture volume growth, fracturing fluid loss, as well as diffusion of the injection pressure. In contrast, in a water-based fracturing the volume creation growth and the diffusion controlled growth are not clearly separated from each other in the space-time diagram of the induced event cloud. Still, using the approach presented here, the interpretation of induced seismicity for the gel and the water treatments resulted in similar estimates of geometrical characteristics of the fractures and hydraulic properties of the reservoir. The observed difference in the permeability of the particular hydraulic fractures is probably caused by the different volume of pumped proppant.