PROJECT BACKGROUND

Understanding and successfully predicting, characterizing, and simulating reservoir-scale structures are the aims of the Fracture Research and Application Consortium (FRAC). A key aspect of the program is investigation of mechanical and chemical processes and interactions over a range of scales.

Our goal is to improve prediction of seismic and subseismic heterogeneities that influence fluid flow. The scope of this project includes measurement, interpretation, prediction, and simulation of fractures. The project creates and tests new methods of measuring attributes of reservoir-scale fractures, particularly as fluid conduits and barriers; develops methods to extrapolate structural attributes to reservoir scale through rigorous mathematical techniques and helps build accurate and useful 3-D models for the interwell region; develops the capability to accurately predict reservoir-scale deformation using geomechanical, structural, diagenetic, and linked geomechanical/diagenetic models; improves the usefulness of seismic response as an indicator of reservoir-scale structure by improving sesimic methods and providing methods of calibrating and verifying seismic fracture detection methods; and designs new ways to incorporate geological and geophysical information into reservoir simulation and to verify the accuracy of the simulation.

Our research team comprises staff of the Bureau of Economic Geology and the Departments of Petroleum & Geosystems Engineering and Geological Sciences, The University of Texas at Austin: