Spatiotemporal variations in seismic attenuation during hydraulic fracturing: A case study in a tight oil reservoir in the Ordos Basin, China

During hydraulic fracturing (HF) stimulation for unconventional reservoir development, seismic attenuation has a significant influence on high-frequency microseismic data. Attenuation also provides important information for characterizing reservoir structure and changes to it due to HF injections. However, the attenuation effect is typically not considered in microseismic analysis. We have adopted the spectral ratio and centroid-frequency shift methods to estimate the subsurface attenuation (the factor [Formula: see text]) in a tight oil reservoir in the Ordos Basin, China. The P- and S-wave attenuations are calculated using the 3C waveform data recorded by a single-well downhole geophone array during a 12-stage HF stimulation. Both methods provide similar results (with differences in [Formula: see text] of absolute values less than 0.010 for P- and S-waves). For individual events, their median [Formula: see text] values calculated from different geophones are selected to represent the average attenuation. Spatiotemporal variations in attenuation are obtained by investigating [Formula: see text] values along propagating rays linking different source–receiver pairs. The [Formula: see text] values derived at different HF stages reveal significant attenuation in the targeted tight sandstone layer (0.030–0.062 for [Formula: see text] and 0.026−0.058 for [Formula: see text]), and the attenuation is apparently increased by fluid injection activities. We explain the sudden decrease in attenuation near the geophone array as a result of high shale content using log data from a horizontal treatment well. The consistency between the [Formula: see text] values and horizontal well-log data, as well as the HF process, indicates the reliability and robustness of the attenuation results. By studying spatiotemporal variations in attenuation, the changes in subsurface structures may be quantitatively characterized, thereby creating a reliable basis for microseismic modeling and data processing and providing additional information on monitoring the HF process.