With Saudi Aramco's recent ambitious endeavors toward exploring unconventional resources in the Kingdom, the Unconventional Resources Program at Saudi Aramco has adopted a robust technology – microseismic monitoring – that pinpoints where hydraulic fractures are induced.

Microseismic monitoring is a relatively new technology to Saudi Aramco for monitoring hydraulic fracturing. Microseismic events can pinpoint where the formation is sheared and can detect events to show excessive downward growth. Also, it can identify the occurrence and the azimuths of faults and natural fractures.

After analyzing the results from a well in a Saudi unconventional play, microseismic monitoring resulted in revising future fracturing designs. The fracturing treatment in the subject well was designed for a crosslinked fluid, creating excessive downward growth. Therefore, the team believes a slickwater treatment would be preferred to stay in the zone. Also, faults and natural fractures were observed around a stimulated area. Therefore, future fracture treatments will be placed away from these faulted and fractured areas to capitalize on stimulating the pay zone.

Microseismic monitoring has played a key role in optimizing upcoming fracture treatments, which in turn will affect future field development strategies, especially for unconventional plays. It is worth noting that this was the first time a horizontal well was used for microseismic monitoring for another horizontal well in Saudi Arabia.

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