As a Graduate Research Assistant I work in partnership with both the UT Jackson School of Geosciences and the Bureau of Economic Geology. My specific research focuses on the work done at the Hydraulic Fracture Test Site in the Midland Basin of West Texas. Mine-back studies from this test site have yielded direct ground truth for hydraulic fracture network growth.
I will be conducting an in-depth analysis of the shape, surface features, and distribution of the hydraulic fractures collected in core from the test site, and comparing results with those seen in outcrop and lab models. In particular I will be focusing on features associated with fracture segmentation. In addition, I will be using the Petrel 2019 software to model the locations of hydraulic fractures in relation to mechanical stratigraphy and reservoir properties, as well as run forward modeling to compare ground-truth data with industry standard hydraulic fracture simulators. The key implications of this work could provide a greater understanding of fracture network propagation in the subsurface, and could have wider applications for completion and production techniques in unconventional reservoirs. |