The Energy Consulting Group

The idea is to evaluate several different variables in a concentrated area.  The variables include well spacing, frack fluid, amont of sand, frack rate, zipper fracks, etc.  The key to the evaluation is the use of microseismic technology, which allowed Continental Resources to evaluate in real time the effectiveness of the new ideas.  Using MicroSeismic in such a way is dependent upon the capability to store vast amounts of data, the ability to rapid access the data, and powerful processers to then process the data in a timely fashion.

Each of the blue lines represents a separate induced frac as identified by real time, microseismic data.  As firms get better drilling long laterals with onshore equipment, The focus now becomes one of how best to fill in the black space between the blue lines.  To do this, firms are investigating a wide range of variables, including, how many stages, distance between stages, fluid type, amount of sand per stage, how that sand is placed, etc. Key to determining which changes make a difference is real time microseismic.