MicroSeismic announced Tuesday that field tests conducted this year for several key operators in North America have successfully calculated reservoir drainage volume and provided early estimates of production, enabled by the newest developments in MicroSeismic’s PermIndex workflow.
The advantage gained by understanding a well’s production and reservoir drainage prior to the well’s production phase is to enable completions optimization immediately after treatment, at least 6 months before regular production information would be available. This insight allows an operator to evaluate the success of each treatment stage or each well and improve completion plans by adjusting well spacing, treatment stage spacing, or treatment design for future wells, based on production goals or economic thresholds.
Last year, MicroSeismic announced the release of PermIndex, a proprietary microseismic-based method for quantifying unconventional reservoir permeability. MicroSeismic has spent the last year demonstrating that the PermIndex workflow is able to predict reservoir drainage patterns and production determined from microseismic data of the fractures, which gives operators the insight to adjust completion designs without waiting for production data.
Reservoir drainage
“MicroSeismic’s PermIndex production predictions matched closely with our actual production results. Based on preliminary tests, we’ve engaged in a pilot program to use the results for future field optimization,†said Casey Lipp, a geologist at Peregrine Petroleum, who recently partnered with MicroSeismic for a case study using the new PermIndex developments.
“We have been working with selected clients to apply our PermIndex workflow to the operator’s actual production data to determine whether our calculations return accurate production predictions. As we expected, the results have been very accurate. Our clients are willing to participate in such case studies because the potential value provided by PermIndex is so significant; it is the only microseismic tool currently in the marketplace that can accurately quantify current reservoir drainage and predict future reservoir drainage and production,†Sudhendu Kashikar, V.P. of Completions Evaluation for MicroSeismic, said.
The proprietary PermIndex workflow provides the absolute permeability of the reservoir due to hydraulic fracturing and can be used to predict a well’s production and the reservoir drainage pattern the well will create as it is produced. The unique process enables automatic generation of additional models for multiple nearby unproduced wells without the need to calibrate, eliminating the typical wait-time for a well’s production data.