Back azimuth constrained double-difference seismic location and tomography for downhole microseismic monitoring

We have developed a new seismic tomography method, back azimuth constrained double-difference (DD) seismic tomography, which is suitable for downhole microseismic monitoring of hydraulic fracturing. The new method simultaneously locates microseismic events and determines three-dimensional (3D) Vp and Vs models for the fracturing zone using differential arrival times from pairs of events and event back azimuths in addition to absolute arrival times. Compared to the existing DD location and tomography method, our method incorporates back azimuth information to better constrain microseismic event locations in the case of poor spatial station coverage such as the linear downhole seismic array generally used for microseismic monitoring. By incorporating the relative arrival time and back azimuth information of events, the extended DD method can provide better relative event locations, and thus can better characterize the fracture distribution. In addition to microseismic locations, seismic velocity anomalies determined around the fracturing zone may also provide valuable information for fracture development. Due to the existence of fractures and fluids, the seismic velocity is expected to be lower in the fractured zone compared to the surrounding regions. Therefore the area of low seismic velocity anomaly may be used as a proxy for the stimulated reservoir volume. We have applied the new method to a downhole microseismic dataset from shale gas hydraulic fracturing. The microseismic events are more accurately relocated than the conventional grid search location method, and they are generally associated with low velocity anomalies.