Fracture diagnostic technologies with process workflow for implementation

Hydraulic Fracturing (HF) is a frequently used well stimulation technology to improve a well's productivity by increasing the contact area with the formation matrix. Hydraulic fractures are created by following a customized design based on imperfect knowledge of the subsurface formation and idealizations. Therefore, the resulting fracture system is often different from the original design, which calls for post-fracturing evaluations. Fracture diagnostics are utilized to understand fracture behavior during or after hydraulic fracturing. Understanding the geomechanics of how fractures form during fracturing has been studied in detail; however, predicting fracture genesis and propagation behavior has been a challenging endeavor because of reservoir heterogeneity. This paper will reveal the current fracture diagnostic technologies and assess their ability to detect HF extension and quantify the properties of hydraulic fractures in terms of conductivity and stimulated reservoir volumes. This paper is not an abridged version of the technical manual regarding how each method is conducted or used but focuses on insight into what they measure and their difference from others. With the critical reviews on current HF diagnostic technologies, we intend to (1) define key terminologies that are often used in HF evaluation to set up a common linguistic lexicon for comparison, (2) provide a brief discussion on their mechanisms; (3) stipulate a framework on how to choose proper HF diagnostic tools and analysis methods for different HF applications.