Hydraulic stimulation of natural fractures as revealed by induced microearthquakes, Carthage Cotton Valley gas field, east Texas

Abstract

We produced a high‐resolution microseismic image of a hydraulic fracture stimulation in the Carthage Cotton Valley gas field of east Texas. We improved the precision of microseismic event locations four‐fold over initial locations by manually repicking the traveltimes in a spatial sequence, allowing us to visually correlate waveforms of adjacent sources. The new locations show vertical containment within individual, targeted sands, suggesting little or no hydraulic communication between the discrete perforation intervals simultaneously treated within an 80‐m section. Treatment (i.e., fracture‐zone) lengths inferred from event locations are about 200 m greater at the shallow perforation intervals than at the deeper intervals. The highest quality locations indicate fracture‐zone widths as narrow as 6 m. Similarity of adjacent‐source waveforms, along with systematic changes of phase amplitude ratios and polarities, indicate fairly uniform source mechanisms (fracture plane orientation and sense of slip) over the treatment length. Composite focal mechanisms indicate both left‐ and right‐lateral strike‐slip faulting along near‐vertical fractures that strike subparallel to maximum horizontal stress. The focal mechanisms and event locations are consistent with activation of the reservoir's prevalent natural fractures, fractures that are isolated within individual sands and trend subparallel to the expected hydraulic fracture orientation (maximum horizontal stress direction). Shear activation of these fractures indicates a stronger correlation of induced seismicity with low‐impedance flow paths than is normally found or assumed during injection stimulation.