Accurate stress measurement using hydraulic fracturing in deep low-permeability reservoirs: Challenges and research directions

Seismic forecasting remains constrained by surface noise and low spatial resolution, limiting reproducible predictions. Although deep borehole stations and underground laboratories improve conditions, they face high costs, sparse coverage, and narrow disciplinary scope. In this work, the strategic reuse of deep closed mines as seismic forecasting laboratories was evaluated. Closed mines, abundant and deep with extensive tunnels and reusable infrastructure, provide ideal low-noise, near-source environments for scalable observation networks. They can lower construction costs, enable simultaneous monitoring of natural and induced earthquakes, and support comparative studies of source mechanisms and forecasting methods. Key challenges include processing massive data volumes, integrating multi-source information, and ensuring equipment reliability in harsh environments. Future directions emphasize building three-dimensional, multiphysics monitoring networks, advancing interdisciplinary and international collaboration, and developing an integrated “observation–warning–prevention” platform. Repurposing closed mines not only expands underground space utilization but also offers a potential paradigm shift in seismic monitoring, providing a novel pathway to overcome longstanding forecasting bottlenecks. Document Type: Perspective Cited as: Li, P., Tang, C., Li, Y., Zhang, Y., Gorjian, M., Cai, M. Repurposing deep closed mines as seismic forecasting research platforms. Advances in Geo-Energy Research, 2025, 18(1): 1-6. https://doi.org/10.46690/ager.2025.10.01

Fibre-optic sensing technology has recently become popular for oil and gas extraction, mining, geotechnical engineering, and hydrogeology applications. With a successful track record in many applications, distributed acoustic sensing using straight fibre-optic cables has become a method of choice for seismic studies. However, distributed acoustic sensing using straight fibre-optic cables cannot detect off-axial strain at high incident angles (the angle between the ray and normal vector of the surface); hence, a helically wound cable design was introduced to overcome this limitation. The helically wound cable field data at the New Afton deposit in British Columbia, Canada, showed that the quality of the data is highly dependent on the incident angle and surrounding media. A 3D finite element model developed using COMSOL Multiphysics quickly and efficiently assessed the effects of various materials surrounding a helically wound cable for simple geometry for scenarios corresponding to a real deployment of such cable underground at the New Afton mine. The proposed numerical modelling workflow could be applied to more complicated scenarios (e.g., non-linear material constitutive behaviour and the effects of pore fluids). The results of this paper can be used as a guideline for analyzing the impact of surrounding media and incident angle on the response of helically wound cable, optimizing the installation of helically wound cable in various conditions, and validating boundary conditions of 3D numerical models built for analyzing complex scenarios.

This paper presents selected results of a broader research project pertaining to the hydraulic fracturing of oil reservoirs hosted in the siltstones and fine grained sandstones of the Bakken Formation in southeast Saskatchewan, Canada. The Bakken Formation contains significant volumes of hydrocarbon, but large-scale hydraulic fracturing is required to achieve economic production rates. The performance of hydraulic fractures is strongly dependent on fracture attributes such as length and width, which in turn are dependent on in-situ stresses. This paper reviews methods for estimating changes to the in-situ stress field (stress shadow) resulting from mechanical effects (fracture opening), poro-elastic effects, and thermo-elastic effects associated with fluid injection for hydraulic fracturing. The application of this method is illustrated for a multi-stage hydraulic fracturing operation, to predict principal horizontal stress magnitudes and orientations at each stage. A methodology is also presented for using stress shadow models to assess the potential for inducing shear failure on natural fractures. The results obtained in this work suggest that thermo and poro-elastic stresses are negligible for hydraulic fracturing in the Bakken Formation of southeast Saskatchewan, hence a mechanical stress shadow formulation is used for analyzing multistage hydraulic fracture treatments. This formulation (and a simplified version of the formulation) predicts an increase in instantaneous shut-in pressure (ISIP) that is consistent with field observations (i.e., ISIP increasing from roughly 21.6 MPa to values slightly greater than 26 MPa) for a 30-stage fracture treatment. The size of predicted zones of shear failure on natural fractures are comparable with the event clouds observed in microseismic monitoring when assumed values of 115°/65° are used for natural fracture strike/dip; however, more data on natural fracture attributes and more microseismic monitoring data for the area are required before rigorous assessment of the model is possible.

Fiber optic sensing technology has recently become popular for oil and gas, mining, geotechnical engineering, and hydrogeology applications. With a successful track record in many applications, distributed acoustic sensing using straight fiber optic cables has become a method of choice for seismic studies. However, distributed acoustic sensing using straight fiber optic cables is not able to detect off-axial strain, hence a helically wound cable design was introduced to overcome this limitation. The helically wound cable field data in New Afton deposit showed that the quality of the data is tightly dependent on the incident angle (the angle between the ray and normal vector of the surface) and surrounding media. We introduce a new analytical two-dimensional approach to determine the dynamic strain of a helically wound cable in terms of incident angle in response to elastic plane waves propagating through multilayered media. The method can be used to quickly and efficiently assess the effects of various materials surrounding a helically wound cable. Results from the proposed analytical model are compared with results from numerical modeling obtained with COMSOL Multiphysics, for scenarios corresponding to a real installation of helically wound cable deployed underground at the New Afton mine in British Columbia, Canada. Results from the analytical model are consistent with numerical modeling results. Our modeling results demonstrate the effects of cement quality, and casing installment on the quality of the helically-wound cable response. Numerical modeling results and field data suggest that, even if reasonably effective coupling achieved, the soft nature of the rocks in these intervals would result in low fiber strains for the HWC. The proposed numerical modeling workflow would be applied for more complicated scenarios (e.g., non-linear material constitutive behaviour, and the effects of pore fluids). The results of this paper can be used as a guideline for analyzing the effect of surrounding media and incident angle on the response of helically wound cable, optimizing the installation of helically wound cable in various conditions, and to validate boundary conditions of 3-D numerical model built for analyzing complex scenarios.

This paper presents selected results of a broader research project pertaining to the hydraulic fracturing of oil reservoirs hosted in the siltstones and fine grained sandstones of the Bakken Formation in southeast Saskatchewan, Canada. The Bakken Formation contains significant volumes of hydrocarbon, but large-scale hydraulic fracturing is required to achieve economic production rates. The performance of hydraulic fractures is strongly dependent on fracture attributes such as length and width, which in turn are dependent on in-situ stresses. This paper reviews methods for estimating changes to the in-situ stress field (stress shadow) resulting from mechanical effects (fracture opening), poro-elastic effects, and thermo-elastic effects associated with fluid injection for hydraulic fracturing. The application of this method is illustrated for a multi-stage hydraulic fracturing operation, to predict principal horizontal stress magnitudes and orientations at each stage. A methodology is also presented for using stress shadow models to assess the potential for inducing shear failure on natural fractures. The results obtained in this work suggest that thermo and poro-elastic stresses are negligible for hydraulic fracturing in the Bakken Formation of southeast Saskatchewan, hence a mechanical stress shadow formulation is used for analyzing multistage hydraulic fracture treatments. This formulation (and a simplified version of the formulation) predicts an increase in instantaneous shut-in pressure (ISIP) that is consistent with field observations (i.e., ISIP increasing from roughly 21.6 MPa to values slightly greater than 26 MPa) for a 30-stage fracture treatment. The size of predicted zones of shear failure on natural fractures are comparable with the event clouds observed in microseismic monitoring when assumed values of 115°/65° are used for natural fracture strike/dip; however, more data on natural fracture attributes and more microseismic monitoring data for the area are required before rigorous assessment of the model is possible.