Denver Section

 Society of Petroleum Engineers

 Continuing Education Short Course Offering

An Overview of Microseismic Imaging of Hydraulic Fracturing

Instructor:            Kenneth D. Mahrer, Ph.D., APEX – a Sigma³ Integrated Reservoir Company.

Dates:                    Tuesday - Wednesday, January 29-30, 2013, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM

Location:           Brown Palace Hotel and Spa, 321 Seventeenth Street, Denver, CO 80202, (303) 297-3111

1.6 CEUs (Continuing Education Units) will be awarded by SPE-Americas Office for this 2-day course.

Course Description

This 2-day course is a survey of microseismic imaging of hydraulic fracturing. It is designed to give the attendees a rudimentary understanding of this technology. This technology is interdisciplinary, combining geophysics, geology, and engineering with well completion technologies.    Hence the course presents the foundations from contributing sciences, means and methods, and user benefits of microseismic imaging. The goal of the course is to give attendees an understanding and realistic expectations of microseismic imaging of hydraulic fracturing.  To this end, attendees should expect to become knowledgeable and discerning users, evaluators, and appreciators of this technology. 

Course Content

                Part 0 – Getting Started

Part I – A Bit of History
How and Why it began—colliding disciplines: 

Hydraulic fracture technology needs meet injection-induced microseismicity solutions

Precursors

              In Situ studies of hydraulic fracture geometry

                Original Paradigm

Part II – Yeoman Scienc

Contributions from material science, rock mechanics, fracture mechanics, and geology

Technology of hydraulic fracture stimulations

Part III – The Technology

Seismology and Microseismology

Waves and lessons from earthquake seismology

Microseismic Imaging

Mean and Methods, How’s and Why’s, More than “Dots on a Page”

Part IV – Case Studies and Interpretation

          Why We Came!

Part V – Wrap Up

Insights

FAQs and Misconceptions

Discussion, Q&A….

Who Should Attend

From its beginning, microseismic imaging of hydraulic fracturing has created controversy within the petroleum industry.  It typically shows a flow network much more complicated than the traditional paradigm:  a single, vertical, planar, elliptical fracture that developed symmetrically and centered on the stimulated well. Understanding the “ground truth” of stimulation-induced microseismicity will give an appreciation for the implementation and benefits of the technology and an awareness of its strengths and weaknesses.  As a result, any professional, oil and gas or related, interested in hydraulic fracturing imaging would benefit from this course.  The course is designed to enable attendees to ask the hard questions and evaluate the answers.

About the Instructor

Dr. Kenneth Mahrer is chief scientist at APEX – a Sigma3 Integrated Reservoir Company.   APEX specializes in all aspects of hydraulic fracturing, including microseismic imaging.  At APEX, Dr. Mahrer’s duties center on building the full picture of a hydraulic fracture stimulation:  This includes compiling, integrating, evaluating, and interpreting the full complement of data sets:  the design and well completion data, the engineering (i.e., injection) data, the logging and petrophysical data, with the microseismic data and any other germane data (e.g., tracer data).  Dr. Mahrer holds BS and MS degrees in physics and a PhD in geophysics from Stanford University.  His Ph.D. thesis combined fault modeling with fracture mechanics.  Following his Ph.D., he won two postdoctoral fellowships in fracture mechanics, one at the University of Sheffield (England) and the other at Northwestern University (USA).  After these fellowships he taught geophysics and geology in the geology department at the University of New Mexico, followed by working as a principal geophysicist at Teledyne Geotech.  At Teledyne Geotech, Dr. Mahrer was a member of the first team (1980’s) to demonstrate, research, and develop the commercial applicability of microseismic monitoring of hydraulic fracture stimulations for the petroleum industry.  During his career, Dr. Mahrer has held a diversity of positions including being a member of the team that monitored, mapped, and characterized the microseismicity induced by high-pressure injection at the world’s deepest, continuous, injection well (Paradox Valley, western Colorado).  Prior to coming to APEX, Dr. Mahrer was a principle geophysicist in the microseismic mapping group at Weatherford International.  He has also been a technical editor for both the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and the Society of Petroleum Engineers.  He has written two columns for the SEG journal The Leading Edge:  one (“THE WRITER’s BLOCK”) on improving technical writing and one (“BRIGHT SPOTS”) summarizing technical articles appearing in the SEG journal GEOPHYSICS.  In addition to teaching short-courses on microseismic imaging of hydraulic fracturing, Dr. Mahrer teaches short-courses on technical writing.

Registration

The registration deadline is January 11, 2013.  The registration fee is $1,400 for members and $1,600 for nonmembers and is fully refundable until that date.  For more details, contact Darien O’Brien, P.E. at dgobrien@mines.edu or (303) 934-5979.  Make your check payable to SPE Denver Section and mail to: Darien O’Brien, 1632 South Lamar Street, Lakewood, Colorado 80232-7038.  Please include the course name, your FULL name (as you would like it to appear on the course completion certificate), SPE member number (if applicable), Title, Company, e-mail address, postal address, phone and fax number.  You may also register and pay on-line at http://connect.spe.org/denver/home/.