Improving estimation of microseismic focal mechanisms using a high-resolution velocity model

Abstract:

Injection and migration of CO₂ during the geological carbon sequestration change the pore pressure and stress distribution in the reservoir. The change in stress may induce brittle failure on fractures, causing microseismic events. Focal mechanisms of induced microseismic events are useful for understanding stress evolution in the reservoir. An accurate estimation of microseismic focal mechanism depends on the accuracy of velocity models. In this work, we study the improvement on estimation of microseismic focal mechanisms using a high-resolution velocity model. We obtain the velocity model using a velocity inversion algorithm with a modified total-variation scheme rather than the commonly used Tikhonov regularization technique. We demonstrate with synthetic microseismic data that the velocity inversion method with a modified total-variation regularization scheme improves velocity inversion, and the improved velocity models enhance the accuracy of estimated focal mechanisms of microseismic events. We apply the new methodology to microseismic data acquired at a CO₂-EOR (enhanced oil recovery) site at Aneth, Utah.