Tectonophysical data on natural stress in the field of hydraulic fracturing of gas producing formation

yury L. Rebetsky IPE RAS Moscow, Russian Federation reb@ifz.ru
Evgeniy M. Chesnokov The University of Houston Houston, Unites States of America emchesno@Central.UH.EDU
Sergey S. Abaseev The Institute of Seismology and Atmospheric Physics of the Academy of Sciences of Turkmenistan Ashgabat, Turkmenistan s_abaseev@yahoo.com
Alexandra A. Vihoreva IPE RAS Moscow, Russian Federation  
The results of the analysis of the field of microseismic fracturing of a formation made for the gas field "Barnet" in the northeastern part of Texas are presented. The inversion of digital records of microseisms has been performed and data have been obtained not only about the coordinates of initiating micro-earthquakes, but also their focal mechanisms of cracks. These data were the basis for carrying out tectonophysical reconstruction of the stresses that existed in the depth of the massif at the time of Hydrofracturing. The results of stress reconstruction allowed obtaining data on the orientation of the axes of the principal stresses, the nature of thegeodynamic regime, and the relative level of the effective pressure of the massif in the fracturing region. On the basis of the stress field, areas of a sharp change in the types of geodynamic regimethat can respond to large deep discontinuous disturbances and areas of increased strength of the massif are identified.
Materials and methods
Data on microseisms due to hydraulic fracturing. Tectonophysical method of natural stress reconstruction from data on discontinuous displacements.
Results
For the Dollie Thorell A4 well of the Barnet gas field, it has been found that in the field of hydraulic fracturing a combination of several geodynamic types of stress state occurred.
Сonclusions
It is shown that tectonophysical methods of data processing and mechanisms of micro-earthquakes allow obtaining information on the parameters of the stressed state of the formation at the time of hydraulic fracturing. This information can be used to determine the nature of the fracture structure that forms during the fracturing process.
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stress focal mechanisms micro-earthquakes hydraulic fracturing