What we know, what we don’t know, and things we do not know we don’t know about hydraulic fracturing in high stress environments

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing in many Australian Basins, particularly the Cooper Basin has been successful in higher permeability, structured conventional plays. However, adaptation of North American strategies to Australia's complex, and highly stressed unconventional areas has resulted in less than adequate performance to progress further investment into widespread development these resources. This presentation will explore the obvious differences between Australian and North American stress settings, and the problems manifested by those differences in hydraulic fracture containment and behaviour. Further, as more unconventional targets are attempted, complementary strategies need to be considered based on fundamental geomechanical principles, relative to these basinal environments. This presentation will explore several problems, emerging potential solutions, and areas of ongoing research with the purpose of aiding Australia to tap into a vast supply of potential unconventional resources, which are currently under-appraised.

What lies beneath – a review of frontier exploration for deep plays in the Bowen Basin

“…This type of stress profile is not inconsistent with other Permian intervals in other Australian basins and poses a problem in placing stimulation treatments effectively in the higher-stressed sandstone sequences interbedded with lower-stressed coals (Johnson and Greenstreet 2003;Pitkin et al 2012;Scott et al 2013;Johnson et al 2015Johnson et al , 2016Johnson et al , 2019aJohnson et al , 2019bJohnson 2018b). In Tasmania 1, this stress state was not a contributing factor in the ineffective stimulation of the Kianga Formation, as there was an adequate standoff between the targeted sands and Kianga coals.…”