Geomechanical Aspect of Seismicity
Induced by Subsurface Fluid Injection and
Production
S. Mehran Hosseini, Ph.D. Student
Fracture Tip Stress Trajectory
USC Induced Seismicity Consortium Meeting
Fracture Tip Stress Field
July 02, 2013
Outline

Application
Coulomb Stress Transfer
Analytical Solutions
Numerical Solutions
Data and Software Requirement Along Deliverables

Methodology:

Project Schedule and Milestones

References
2
Applications
• Oil and Gas Production
• Hydraulic Fracturing
• CO2 Sequestration
• Geothermal Reservoirs
• Enhanced Oil Recovery
• Waste Injection
Methodology
4
Coulomb Stress Transfer
Coulomb stress transfer is an interaction criterion that promises a deeper understanding of
earthquake occurrence, and a better description of probabilistic hazard.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDdHPDdPpYE&feature=player_embedded
Coulomb stress change can happen as result of
pore pressure diffusion in a poroelastic
medium (reservoir) as well as stresss change
and displacement associated with hydraulic
fracturing and faulting.
Why should we be concerned? USGS seismic
hazard map speaks for itself.
USGS Seismic Hazard Map
USC Induced Seismicity Consortium Meeting
S. Mehran Hosseini, July 02, 2013
Risk Quantification and Management

Earthquakes have happened in the past and will happen in the future.

The main question is how much subsurface production and injection can increase
or decrease the risk, If any.

In the case of increased risk what solutions can be followed to decrease the risk.

The results of the study will be included in the hazard mitigation tool.
6
Similar Analytical Solutions: Fracture Network
Characterization Based on Seismic Event Front
Failure in the intact rock
Failure along the
planes of weakness
Hosseini and Aminzadeh [2013]
Event Front
Hosseini and Aminzadeh [2013]
ΔP
m
β
Fault or Fracture Orientation
Numerical Solution: Coulomb
Stress Change Due to Subsurface
Injection and Production

USGS Coulomb Software: One can calculate static
displacements, strains, and stresses caused by fault
slip, magmatic intrusion or dike expansion. Problems
such as how an earthquake promotes or inhibits
failure on nearby faults, or how fault slips are
germane to Coulomb.

Calculations are made in an elastic halfspace with
uniform isotropic elastic properties following Okada
[1992].

This software is used in several studies which are
published in Nature and other distinguished
journals.
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Data and Software Requirement Along
Deliverables
Required Data

Triaxial test results

Geology data

Micorseismic data

Stress data

Image log

Sonic log

More specific data needs will
be updated along the way
Required Software

USGS Coulomb Software
(Free)

ABAQUS (Dassault Systems)

Jewel Suite (Baker Hughes)

Mangrove (Schlumberger)

CMG
Deliverables

Results will be conveyed
through quarterly meeting
presentations and reports.

The results upon client
agreement will be included in
S. Mehran Hosseini’s Ph.D.
dissertation.

Results upon client agreement
will be published in related
journals and conference
proceedings.
9
Project Schedule and Milestones
After Aminzadeh et al. [2013]; Yellow Areas shows my personal contribution plan
References
Aminzadeh, F., Jafarpour, B., Sammis, C., Ghanem, R., Strack, K., Karrenbach, M.
2012. Quantifying Seismic Hazard from Subsurface Fluid Injection and Production (SFIP)
for Shale Gas and Oil Reservoirs. REPSEA RFP2012UN001.
Hosseini, S.M., Aminzadeh, F. 2013. A New Model for Geomechanical Seismicity Based
Reservoir Characterization Including Reservoir Discontinuity Orientations. Paper SPE
166485 presented at the SPE Annual Technology conference and exhibition, New
Orleans, LA, 30 September-2 October.
Okada, Y. 1992. Internal deformation due to shear and tensile faults in a half-space,
Bull. Seismol. Soc. Amer., 82 (2), 1018-1040.
Richards-Dinger, K., Stein, R.S., and Toda, S. 2010, Decay of aftershock density with
distance does not indicate triggering by dynamic stress, Nature, 467, 583-586,
doi:10.1038/nature0940.
Thank You
Questions?
Paper # • Paper Title • Presenter Name