Estimation of fault-related fractures using automatic fault extraction process with Acoustic Emission data in the Yufutsu oil/gas Field

An automatic fault extraction (AFE) process is expected to contribute to fault interpretation. However, it is important to validate an output of the AFE process because fault patterns extracted by the AFE process change according to extraction parameters.A commercially available AFE process is applied to 3D seismic data acquired in the Yufutsu oil/gas field with an objective to estimate fault-related fractures in a reservoir. To select a suitable output of the AFE process, fracture information derived from Acoustic Emission (AE) data during a massive hydraulic injection is utilized. The AE data delineate fracture zones within the area of six hundred meters by two hundred meters. An output of the AFE process with fault intervals close to those derived by the AE distribution is selected and it is used as an input for Discrete Fracture Network (DFN) modeling to constrain locations and orientations of the fault-related fractures. The dense zones of the fault-related fractures expressed by multiple realizations of DFN models are fairly consistent with main fracture zones delineated by the AE distribution. This consistency indicates that the output of the automatic fault process has been validated by the AE data and that it can be used for estimation of fault-related fractures in the area outside the source location distribution of AE events.

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