Integration of passive seismic and 3D reflection seismic in an unconventional shale gas play: relationship between rock fabric and seismic moment of microseismic events

Reservoir and completion quality are key parameters defining shale reservoirs. This study addresses completion quality by investigating the interaction between preexisting faults (rock fabric) and microseismic response of three multi-stage hydraulic stimulations. A new approach is presented to integrate rock fabric derived from 3D reflection seismic with microseismic information from hydraulic fracture monitoring. It is shown that regions of high degree of rock fabric correlate with microseismic events with a high seismic moment and a low P/SH ratio. In areas with a high degree of rock fabric fracture complexity increases as a result of changing rock properties and/or perturbations of in-situ stresses.