American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019 - 67

Revealing Critical Insights
Microseismic technology got its start
as a means of measuring completion effectiveness. Now it has exciting new applications in evaluating wellbore spacing
and placement, predicting well production,
mitigating interwell interference, and even
maximizing the return on investment for
hydraulic fracturing treatments, says MicroSeismic Inc. President Peter Duncan.
"We can estimate the pressure drawdown
around wells as a function of time," says
Duncan. "Pressure drawdown tells operators
which stages along the lateral are producing
hydrocarbons and which are not, and also
reveals critical insights to answer questions
about interactions among hydraulic fractures
in multiple wellbores."
After initial success in completion
monitoring and analysis, MicroSeismic
began using reservoir simulations based
on microseismic data to predict production
performance. A look back on three years'
worth of projects showed excellent history
matching, says Duncan. To deliver specific
value for reservoir engineers, however,
he says, the company went a step farther
to analyze well spacing and its related return on investment and net present value.
"To prove the technology, we did a
study in which we monitored wells in
the Permian Basin and calculated pressure
drawdown over time," explains Duncan.
"We started with four wells, then modeled
and predicted returns for drilling additional
wells per section."

2,500
Thousands

NPV/Section*
(Production-Well Cost)

2,000

Cumulative Production (boe)

is tied directly to data quality and the
quality of the data processing. To that
end, Dryer points out that Fairfield Geotechnologies has seen an uptick in reprocessing related mostly to proper data
conditioning for reservoir and rock property characterization.
He adds that Fairfield Geotechnologies
has teamed with Ikon Science, which
offers geoprediciton software and services.
"We recognized early on that our clients
were looking to get more out of their
data. Our joint venture with Ikon Science
is a good example of how we think interpreters can extract the most value out of
their data," Dryer observes.
He explains that the partnership gives
clients the option to get an interpretationready dataset that puts them on the fast
track to decision making, saying "Time
is everything, particularly in unconventional
plays. We streamlined the process from
acquisition to interpretation, cutting the
time to analysis dramatically."
"These are exciting times for the industry," Dryer concludes. "Denser surveys,
precision processing techniques and unlimited computing power are leading to
enhanced recovery rates."

4 Wells

$19,285,000

6 Wells

$24,770,000

+28%
+43%

1,500

1,000

4 Wells

500

6 Wells

Time

20 Years
*Assumptions: $50 WTI, $3 HH,
10% discount rate, $2.5 mm well cost

Going beyond stimulation monitoring and analysis, MicroSeismic Inc. is using microseismic data in reservoir simulations to predict production performance over time. As illustrated here, combining microseismic data with a proper economic analysis shows that a
50% increase in the well count per section would increase hydrocarbon production by
43%. That would be sufficient to offset the additional completion and operating costs associated with a six-well rather than four-well development plan and result in positive NPV.

"Adding two more wells yielded almost
50 percent more hydrocarbons, with a
positive NPV of 28% after considering
extra operating costs," continues Duncan.
"That was a good investment, but if we
doubled the wells, there was only a 60
percent increase in hydrocarbons, taking
the NPV negative compared to the base
case."
To get the most accurate modeling results, Duncan advises integrating as much
available data as possible, including 3-D
seismic, rock stress data, property data,
and rock mechanics. "Microseismic adds
a different perspective, for example, in
identifying faults that have a more horizontal motion with very little vertical
offset," he explains.
Duncan asserts that this approach using
microseismic integrated with other types
of data is the ideal solution for evaluating
wellbore spacing/placement in resource
plays with multiwell pads. There is even
interest among operators for applying the
method to conventional reservoirs, although he says that would be a much
more difficult analysis because conven-

tional carbonate and sandstone-type reservoirs tend to respond to fracturing acoustically at much lower levels.
With a reservoir model in hand, engineers can have an idea of how each
well should be stimulated to maximize
return on investment. "They can watch
the well treatment in real time and follow
a template to see when the treatment
reaches the goal," says Duncan. "They
also can monitor how the rock fractures
and map the stimulated reservoir volume
in real time to help prevent parent/child
well interactions."
Ultimately, the technology gives the
operator the ability to make decisions in
real time and make on-the-fly adjustments
to the pump schedule during fracturing
treatments to increase bottom-line well
performance. "We are moving toward
being able to judge the return on investment to the point of being able to say,
'Fifteen more minutes of treatment will
generate a net present value of X amount,'"
concludes Duncan. "If NPV is positive,
the treatment would keep going; if it is
negative, treatment would stop."
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AUGUST 2019 67
American Oil and Gas Reporter - August 2019

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