A model for induced seismicity caused by hydrocarbon production in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin

Baranova, Valentina; Mustaqeem, Azer; Bell, Sebastian

doi:10.1139/cjes-36-1-47

Cited by 28 publications

(54 citation statements)

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“…Altmann et al, 2010). Furthermore, Baranova et al (1999) found a strong correlation between rates of gas production and the number of seismic events, which is reasonable because production lead to decrease of S V and increase of S Hmax -consequentially increasing differential stresses. The stress change due to the gas extraction point to a regime, which favours thrust faulting (Baranova et al, 1999).…”

Section: Contemporary Stress Field In the Alberta Basinmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…A similar change from surface to depth is observed: from thrust faulting at < 350-600 m in depth, strike slip in a depth range of about 500-2500 m, down to normal faulting at greater depths > 2500 m (Bell and Babcock, 1986;Fordjor et al, 1983;Jenkins and Kirkpatrick, 1979). There is also a varying S hmin gradient discussed (Bachu et al, 2008;Bell and Grasby, 2012;Hawkes et al, 2005), but this is may be due to different measurement methods (Bell et al, 1994) or man-made stress changes. The S Hmax /S hmin ratio in the Alberta Basin is about 1.3-1.6 .…”

Section: Contemporary Stress Field In the Alberta Basinmentioning

confidence: 66%

“…The depth gradients of S V and S hmin increase from the basin centre towards the foothills and the Rocky Mountains (Baranova et al, 1999;Bell, 1996b;Bell and Bachu, 2004;Bell and Grasby, 2012). This trend coincides with higher organic maturity (England and Bustin, 1986;Nurkowski, 1984) and larger compaction (Bell and Bachu, 2004) Figure 11.…”

Section: Contemporary Stress Field In the Alberta Basinmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Documented earthquakes are usually restricted to the Rocky Mountains, foothills, and suspected man-made clustered events (e.g. Baranova et al, 1999;Schultz et al, 2014).…”

Section: Model Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bachu et al, 2008;Bell and Grasby, 2012;Woodland and Bell, 1989) reduces or increases reservoir fluid pressure respectively, but has likely only local effects (e.g. Altmann et al, 2010).…”

Section: Contemporary Stress Field In the Alberta Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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3-D geomechanical–numerical model of the contemporary crustal stress state in the Alberta Basin (Canada)

Reiter

Heidbach

2014

Solid Earth

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Abstract. In the context of examining the potential usage of safe and sustainable geothermal energy in the Alberta Basin, whether in deep sediments or crystalline rock, the understanding of the in situ stress state is crucial. It is a key challenge to estimate the 3-D stress state at an arbitrarily chosen point in the crust, based on sparsely distributed in situ stress data.To address this challenge, we present a large-scale 3-D geomechanical-numerical model (700 km×1200 km×80 km) from a large portion of the Alberta Basin, to provide a 3-D continuous quantification of the contemporary stress orientations and stress magnitudes. To calibrate the model, we use a large database of in situ stress orientation (321 S Hmax ) as well as stress magnitude data (981 S V , 1720 S hmin and 2 (+11) S Hmax ) from the Alberta Basin. To find the best-fit model, we vary the material properties and primarily the displacement boundary conditions of the model. This study focusses in detail on the statistical calibration procedure, because of the large amount of available data, the diversity of data types, and the importance of the order of data tests.The best-fit model provides the total 3-D stress tensor for nearly the whole Alberta Basin, and allows estimation of stress orientation and stress magnitudes in advance of any well. First-order implications for the well design and configuration of enhanced geothermal systems are revealed. Systematic deviations of the modelled stress from the in situ data are found for stress orientations in the Peace River and the Bow Island Arch as well as for leak-off test magnitudes.

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Section: Contemporary Stress Field In the Alberta Basinmentioning

confidence: 59%

Section: Contemporary Stress Field In the Alberta Basinmentioning

confidence: 66%

Section: Contemporary Stress Field In the Alberta Basinmentioning

confidence: 78%

“…Documented earthquakes are usually restricted to the Rocky Mountains, foothills, and suspected man-made clustered events (e.g. Baranova et al, 1999;Schultz et al, 2014).…”

Section: Model Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Bachu et al, 2008;Bell and Grasby, 2012;Woodland and Bell, 1989) reduces or increases reservoir fluid pressure respectively, but has likely only local effects (e.g. Altmann et al, 2010).…”

Section: Contemporary Stress Field In the Alberta Basinmentioning

confidence: 99%

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3-D geomechanical–numerical model of the contemporary crustal stress state in the Alberta Basin (Canada)

Reiter

Heidbach

2014

Solid Earth

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An investigation of seismicity clustered near the Cordel Field, west central Alberta, and its relation to a nearby disposal well

Schultz¹,

Stern²,

2014

JGR Solid Earth

100

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Historically, seismicity documented in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin has been relatively quiescent and earthquakes are usually restricted to the foreland belt of the Rocky Mountains. However, exceptional clusters of events, which have remained active for decades, are recognized in Alberta. In this study we investigate the seismicity in this region using data obtained from recently established regional arrays, emphasizing the relationship between a disposal well in the Cordel Field and a nearby cluster of previously reported earthquakes. We explore temporal correlations of wastewater pumping rates and local seismic activity dating back to 1960. We find that the first statistically significant increase in seismicity lags the onset of wastewater injection (October 1991) by~3.33 years. In particular, the waveform similarity of 32 events are analyzed from continuous data recorded at NOR, a nearby (~30 km) station operated by the University of Alberta starting in September of 2006. Results from this analysis suggest that many events are well correlated in the characteristics of the waveforms and thus are likely to share a similar origin and source mechanism. The most prolific of these multiplets repeats more than 10 times sporadically throughout the entire duration of recorded data from October 2006 to March 2012. Despite the limited availability of nearby stations, which adversely affects the resolution of our analysis, hypocenter depths could be relatively accurately determined from waveform synthesis and double difference methods. The results of our analysis provide first-order evidence that the seismicity is consistent with fluid injection-induced events.

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A seismological model for earthquakes induced by fluid extraction from a subsurface reservoir

Bourne

Oates

Elk³

et al. 2014

JGR Solid Earth

139

158

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A seismological model is developed for earthquakes induced by subsurface reservoir volume changes. The approach is based on the work of Kostrov () and McGarr () linking total strain to the summed seismic moment in an earthquake catalog. We refer to the fraction of the total strain expressed as seismic moment as the strain partitioning function, α. A probability distribution for total seismic moment as a function of time is derived from an evolving earthquake catalog. The moment distribution is taken to be a Pareto Sum Distribution with confidence bounds estimated using approximations given by Zaliapin et al. (). In this way available seismic moment is expressed in terms of reservoir volume change and hence compaction in the case of a depleting reservoir. The Pareto Sum Distribution for moment and the Pareto Distribution underpinning the Gutenberg‐Richter Law are sampled using Monte Carlo methods to simulate synthetic earthquake catalogs for subsequent estimation of seismic ground motion hazard. We demonstrate the method by applying it to the Groningen gas field. A compaction model for the field calibrated using various geodetic data allows reservoir strain due to gas extraction to be expressed as a function of both spatial position and time since the start of production. Fitting with a generalized logistic function gives an empirical expression for the dependence of α on reservoir compaction. Probability density maps for earthquake event locations can then be calculated from the compaction maps. Predicted seismic moment is shown to be strongly dependent on planned gas production.

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A model for induced seismicity caused by hydrocarbon production in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin

Cited by 28 publications

References 0 publications

3-D geomechanical–numerical model of the contemporary crustal stress state in the Alberta Basin (Canada)

3-D geomechanical–numerical model of the contemporary crustal stress state in the Alberta Basin (Canada)

An investigation of seismicity clustered near the Cordel Field, west central Alberta, and its relation to a nearby disposal well

A seismological model for earthquakes induced by fluid extraction from a subsurface reservoir

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