Fracture characterization
First Claim
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1. A method of fracture characterisation of a downwell hydraulic fracturing process comprising:
- interrogating an optic fibre arranged down the path of a well bore to provide a distributed acoustic sensor;
monitoring flow properties of fracturing fluid;
processing acoustic data from the distributed acoustic sensor together with the flow properties data to provide an indication of at least one fracture characteristic; and
monitoring the acoustic disturbances in the optical fibre generated during perforation of the well prior to a fracturing process and determining the portions of the optical fibre that correspond to fracture sites.
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Abstract
This application relates to methods and apparatus for monitoring hydraulic fracturing in well formation and fracture characterization using distributed acoustic sensing (DAS). The method involves interrogating a optic fiber (102) arranged down the path of a bore hole (106) to provide a distributed acoustic sensor and also monitoring flow properties of fracturing fluid pumped (114) into the well. The acoustic data from the distributed acoustic sensor is processed together with the flow properties data to provide an indication of at least one fracture characteristic.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method of fracture characterisation of a downwell hydraulic fracturing process comprising:
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interrogating an optic fibre arranged down the path of a well bore to provide a distributed acoustic sensor; monitoring flow properties of fracturing fluid; processing acoustic data from the distributed acoustic sensor together with the flow properties data to provide an indication of at least one fracture characteristic; and monitoring the acoustic disturbances in the optical fibre generated during perforation of the well prior to a fracturing process and determining the portions of the optical fibre that correspond to fracture sites. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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12. A method of fracture characterisation of a downwell hydraulic fracturing process comprising:
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interrogating a optic fibre arranged down the path of a well bore to provide a distributed acoustic sensor; monitoring flow properties of fracturing fluid; and processing acoustic data from the distributed acoustic sensor together with the flow properties data to provide an indication of at least one fracture characteristic, wherein said at least one fracture characteristic comprises an occurrence of proppant wash out and said processing comprises detecting an increase in fluid flow rate or drop in fluid pressure correlated with an increased acoustic disturbance in a portion of the optical fibre that does not correspond to a fracture site.
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19. A method of fracture characterisation of a downwell hydraulic fracturing process comprising:
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interrogating an optic fibre arranged down the path of a well bore to provide a distributed acoustic sensor; monitoring flow properties of fracturing fluid; and processing acoustic data from the distributed acoustic sensor together with flow properties data to provide an indication of at least one fracture characteristic, the method including the further steps of; i. determining an amount of fracture fluid and/or proppant supplied to each fracture site; ii. analysing the acoustic data to determine relative flow rates of the fracture fluid and/or proppant to individual fracture sites wherein analysing the acoustic data to determine the relative flow rates comprises comparing the intensity levels of acoustic disturbances in the vicinity of each of a number of different fracture sites; and iii. dividing the acoustic data for a sensing portion of fibre in the vicinity of a fracturing site into one or more spectral bands and determining an average intensity for each of said spectral bands. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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22. A system for fracture characterization, said system comprising:
- a fibre optic interrogator adapted to provide distributed acoustic sensing on an optic fibre arranged along the path of a well bore hole;
a sampler arranged to sample a plurality of channels output from said interrogator to provide acoustic data from a plurality of portions of said fibre that correspond to fracture sites at each of a plurality of times;
a flow monitor adapted to monitor the flow properties of fracture fluid into the well bore to be fractured and a data analyzer adapted to process said sampled acoustic data with said flow data to determine at least one fracture characteristic wherein the data analyzer is configured to monitor the acoustic disturbance in the optical fibre generated during perforation of the well prior to fracturing process and configured to determine the portions of the optical fibre that correspond to fracture sites. - View Dependent Claims (23)
- a fibre optic interrogator adapted to provide distributed acoustic sensing on an optic fibre arranged along the path of a well bore hole;
Specification