Unexpected behaviors of stimulated fractures in the high-stress Cooper Basin

Much of the industry's experience with fracture stimulation comes from basins with low stress and normal fault regimes. Th Cooper Basin has high differential stress. It is in a strike-slip fault regime for shallower reservoir levels and a reverse-fault regime for the deeper reservoirs of a new basin-centered gas play. Ths difference in stress leads to a difference in fracturestimulation results. Presented here are data on Cooper tectonic stress, rock strength, pore pressure, natural fractures, and borehole breakouts all of which impact fracture-stimulation treatments. Several unexpected behaviors of Cooper fracture stimulations then are discussed and some mitigation suggested. Th reader is assumed to be a geoscientist with an interest in this topic, not necessarily an expert in geomechanics or fracture stimulation.