Petex: Predicting Fracture Systems in an Unconventional US Reservoir
Why do some wells outperform others? MOVE's fracture modelling uncovered the hidden stress history driving a US shale play's variability.
An unconventional shale play in the United States had a familiar challenge: some wells consistently outperformed others, but the reasons behind the variation were not fully understood.
The field team suspected that natural fractures were influencing reservoir performance, creating differences in porosity, permeability and flow behaviour between wells. The challenge was determining where these fracture networks existed and how they had formed.
Understanding the fracture system required more than mapping faults. It meant reconstructing the structural history of the basin and identifying the stress conditions that created the fractures in the first place.
PETEX specialists used MOVE to validate the geological model, reconstruct the basin's structural evolution and model the stress conditions responsible for fracture formation, allowing fracture orientations and intensity to be predicted across the reservoir. These workflows were then used to predict fracture orientations and likely fracture intensity across the reservoir.
The resulting fracture models provided a better understanding of reservoir variability and helped identify areas with greater production potential, supporting both future drilling and field development decisions.
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