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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database

West Texas Geological Society

Abstract


The Permian Basin: Geological Models to the World, 2008
Page 13

Natural Fractures in the Barnett Shale in the Delaware Basin, Pecos Co. West Texas: Comparison with the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin

Julia F. W. Gale

Abstract

This study describes the several sets of natural fractures in a Barnett Shale core from Pecos County, including partly open fractures, fractures associated with chert layers and early, deformed fractures. These are compared with fractures previously described in the Barnett Shale in the Fort Worth Basin. The basic fracture attributes are discussed in terms of their implications for hydraulic fracture treatments. The steep, narrow, calcite-sealed fractures that are present in many Barnett cores the Fort Worth Basin are important because of their likely tendency to reactivate during hydraulic fracture treatments. Larger open fractures are possibly present, clustered on the order of several hundred feet apart. In the core studied here from the Delaware Basin there is evidence that a greater number of narrower fractures may be open. Thus, their importance for completions may be rather different than those in the Fort Worth Basin.


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