An earlier paper defined mineral and organic matter constituents in weak interfaces in shale formations (Ptaszynska, et. al., 2016). The formation studied in the earlier work and here is the Jurassic, early-Cretaceous Vaca Muerta formation in the Neuquen basin in Argentina. In this earlier work, mineralized "veins" were noted to be prevalent and complicated, sometimes being shear weak interfaces while in other cases they were not. This work looks specifically at the formation mechanisms and composition chemistry of the veins, to better understand why some are planes of weakness. This work shows how observations from core samples of the direction of crystal growth and the vein composition can help predict weak or strong interfaces, and suggests that ultimately high-resolution borehole logs may be better able to predict interfaces. The research focuses on understanding the planes of weakness, as it is now well accepted that such planes of weakness can significantly affect hydraulic fracture propagation during well completions.
Authors
Additional information
- Category
- Aktywność konferencyjna
- Type
- publikacja w wydawnictwie zbiorowym recenzowanym (także w materiałach konferencyjnych)
- Language
- angielski
- Publication year
- 2017
