Improving source characterization of microseismic events for hydraulic fracturing stimulation in the North Montney Play

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The significant surge in hydrocarbon production from unconventional resources in the past decade**is largely due to the technological advances in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (i.e., fracking)**which made it possible to extract hydrocarbon from low-permeability (tight) reservoirs formerly**inaccessible or uneconomical to exploit. The Triassic Montney formation sitting on the Alberta-British**Columbia boundary, northwest of Edmonton, is considered one of North America's premier natural gas**resource plays, with the largest share owned by our industry partner Progress Energy Canada.**We propose to add values to the surface and downhole seismic recordings of microseismic events associated**with fracking by improving source characterization (location/origin time/mechanism) based on 3D seismic**background models. More accurate source locations will help refine the underlying fracture networks while the**additional source mechanism inversions can be used to indicate the brittle failure types in the reservoir in**response to stimulation. Furthermore, microseismic source mechanisms can be used to generate a set of**Discrete Fracture Networks (DFN) as input to reservoir geomechanical modelling, and enhance our**understanding on how the reservoir responds to fluid injection and stimulation, and enhance our industry**partner's ability to optimize the hydrocarbon production.