Event Location:

Pioneer Drive Baptist Church Conference Center

Event Schedule:

Registration: 8:00 – 8:30 am

Morning Program: 8:30 – Noon

Lunch: Noon - 1:00 pm

Afternoon Program: 1:00– 5:00 pm

Food/Refreshment Fee:

The SWS provides the course and materials free of charge for AAPG Members or members of a SWS Geological Society, however, there is an all-day food/refreshment fee of $30 for members or $40 for non-members.

RSVP Info:

Late & walk-up registrations will be accepted, up to fire-code limitations, but short course material will be provided to pre-registered guests first. Course notes and handouts will not be provided to no-shows.

Course Description:

This course is designed to provide an appreciation of the significant differences in the effects on reservoir permeability of the most common extension and shear fracture types. Extension fractures typically occur as sets of parallel fractures that produce a strong horizontal permeability anisotropy in a reservoir and limited, strata-bound vertical permeability. In contrast, shear fractures commonly create an interconnected, more isotropic horizontal permeability system, with a higher probability of a fracture system that is vertically-connected across minor bedding contrasts. However, some shear fracture types degrade reservoir permeability.

This course explores the different characteristics of extension and shear fractures so that they can be recognized in core and image logs. The course also briefly describes the mechanics of creating fractures in the subsurface in order to provide a basis for predicting fracture types in a reservoir. The course examines the effects of fractures on a reservoir, including the differences between extension and shear fractures due to their dissimilar orientations relative to the in situ stresses, and it explores the interactions between natural fractures and hydraulic stimulation fractures.

The course is designed to provide participants with an introductory working knowledge of fracture systems and their effects on reservoirs. A small set of nine core hand samples illustrating natural shear and extension fractures, induced fractures, and coring artifacts will be set out on a table to demonstrate some of the differences between natural and induced fractures in core.

Speaker Bio:

John earned an undergraduate B.A., with a double major in geology and in anthropology from Oberlin College in 1972. After serving in the Peace Corps, Morocco, he earned on his M.S., with a thesis on a Moroccan Triassic rift basin, at the University of South Carolina (1975), and Ph.D., studying the Nubian Sandstone in Libya and Cretaceous strata in Montana, at Princeton University (1981). John has worked for the U.S. Geological Survey in Louisiana and New Mexico, and for Sandia National Laboratories where he was the geologist for the tight-gas Multiwell Experiment in the Piceance basin. John has been a consultant since 2007, partnering with Scott Cooper in 2008 to form FractureStudies LLC which specializes in fractured reservoir characterization and effects. FractureStudies has counted over 50 companies as clients, working on fractured reservoir projects around the world.

John served as the Elected Editor (2001-2004) and President (2009-2010) of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. As president he supported the advancement of the geosciences and their applications to hydrocarbon-related problems. His published papers and presentations on natural and induced fractures in reservoirs range geographically from the Lisburne Limestone in Alaska to the Spraberry Formation in Texas to the carbonates of northern Iraq. These papers and presentations have been awarded the AAPG Levorsen (twice) and Jules Braunstein awards. In 2018 he and Scott Cooper authored the “Atlas of Natural and Induced Fractures in Core.” He has worked closely with the oil and gas industry on problems involving reservoir dimensions and in situ permeability, gaining extensive hands-on experience with core analysis and fieldwork. He has led field trips, presented core workshops, and taught short courses for the industry-oriented geological community in numerous places around the world.