The last few years have seen a dramatic growth of shale oil and shale gas production and development, also known as Resource Plays, in the USA and around the globe. Their development relies on hydraulic fracturing to unlock the ultra-low permeability reservoir and enable it to release trapped hydrocarbons. Completion engineers generally design these hydraulic fracture stimulations with the intent that induced frac lengths do not interfere with fracs from adjacent wells and that heights do not grow outside of the reservoir zone. The geophysical technology of passive microseismic monitoring provides the means of measuring these dimensions by recording the seismic energy released as the rock is split. This important information enables the completions engineers to tune the hydraulic fractures to stimulate the optimum rock volume.
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