Description
Successful hydraulic fracturing treatments are engineered to place the proper type and volume of slurry based on estimating the dimensions of the optimal fracture to be created in a specific wellbore. Several commonly used technologies are available which determine important fracture parameters such as fracture dimensions, fracture orientation, fracture conductivity and proppant placement effectiveness. Direct near-wellbore diagnostics such as radioactive tracers and temperature logging are often used to gather information about fracture height and proppant placement effectiveness, while direct far-field diagnostics such as tiltmapping and microseismic fracture mapping are used to determine hydraulic fracture dimensions and orientation. Direct fracture diagnostics alone only tell the story of what happened after the fact on a given well, but they can be used to build a calibrated fracture model which more accurately predicts fracture growth in a reservoir. Depending upon the critical i