What we know, what we don't know, and things we do not know we don't know about hydraulic fracturing in high stress environments

Abstract

Hydraulic fracturing in many Australian Basins, particularly the Cooper Basin has been successful in higher permeability, structured conventional plays. However, adaptation of North American strategies to Australia’s complex, and highly stressed unconventional areas has resulted in less than adequate performance to progress further investment into widespread development these resources. This presentation will explore the obvious differences between Australian and North American stress settings, and the problems manifested by those differences in hydraulic fracture containment and behaviour. Further, as more unconventional targets are attempted, complementary strategies need to be considered based on fundamental geomechanical principles, relative to these basinal environments. This presentation will explore several problems, emerging potential solutions, and areas of ongoing research with the purpose of aiding Australia to tap into a vast supply of potential unconventional resources, which are currently under-appraised.