SPE OKC April Monthly Luncheon

Weibo Sui

China University of Petroleum (Beijing)

Abstract:

As one of the fiber optic sensing technologies applied for hydraulic fracturing monitoring, the offset well low-frequency distributed acoustic sensing (LF-DAS) monitoring has been proved to show the strain response caused by fracture propagations during stimulation and can further be used for tracking the complex fracture system development. The presentation starts with the historical progress of fiber optic sensing technology and the common types of fiber optic sensors applied in hydraulic fracturing monitoring. The basics of DAS strain measurement is presented. Based on the strain response patterns given by theoretical prediction, an interpretation approach is presented to determine fracture morphology and geometry parameters. This is extremely valuable in naturally fractured reservoirs with complex in-situ stress field. The first field example is used for illustrating using fiber optic sensor measured data to locate frac hits and estimate fractures width in general cases. The second example is based on the Luzhou Block, Southwest Sichuan Basin in China, where naturally fractured shale reservoir has serious casing deformation issues during fracturing treatment. The strain response by fiber optic sensors in the regions can be tracked clearly for casing deformation prevention. Furthermore, the fracture inclination angles and heights were also interpreted with the presented approach. The take-away from this lecture is that offset well LF-DAS strain monitoring provides an opportunity to track complex fracture systems in naturally fractured reservoirs, and more rigorous fracture propagation theoretical models can interpret the strain response patterns measured by fiber optic sensing, enhance fracture stimulation design and prevent casing deformation.

Biography:

Weibo Sui is a professor in the College of Petroleum engineering, China University of Petroleum (Beijing) (CUPB). She holds PhD degree from Texas A&M University. Dr. Sui’s research focuses are in fiber optic monitoring, hydraulic fracturing in complex formation rocks and digital rock physics. Dr. Sui served as the member of SPE Energy Information Committee, Academia Committee, Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty Committee and SPE Award Committee. She was the chair of the Distinguished Achievement Award for Petroleum Engineering Faculty Committee in 2018. She has published more than 40 technical papers and served as the technical reviewer for SPE Journal, Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, Gas Science and Engineering, and Energy Report etc.

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