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Predicting Microseismicity from Coupled Fluid-flow and Geomechanical Simulation
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, Second EAGE Passive Seismic Workshop - Exploration and Monitoring Applications 2009, Mar 2009, cp-122-00019
- ISBN: 978-90-73781-59-7
Abstract
In this paper, we predict microseismicity for a series of simple rectangular reservoir geometries using results from coupled fluid-flow and geomechanical simulation. The results are analysed in terms of their spatial and temporal variations in distribution. We also evaluate the associated failure mechanisms to characterise the type of brittle failure. We find that microseismicity is sensitive to reservoir size. In the small reservoir microseismicity is confined to the edges and in the larger models, where stress arching is significant, microseismicity extends further from the edges as well as up into the overburden. We observe also a transition in the style of faulting, from normal to oblique strike-slip, as well as variation in magnitude of failure of up to 5 orders of magnitude. This work represents some of the research being conducted for the IPEGG (Integrated Petroleum Engineering, Geomechanics and Geophysics) consortium, an industry sponsored research partnership between the University of Bristol, University of Leeds and Rockfield Software Ltd.