Utilizing a kinematic and mechanical modelling workflow to constrain fracture network characteristics: Application to the Teapot Dome, Wyoming, USA

Predicting natural fracture networks is critical for unconventional hydrocarbon exploration, carbon capture/storage, and geothermal energy projects. Developing an accurate picture of key fracture network attributes such as intensity and orientation can be challenging, with difficulties arising from the limited and incomplete information typically offered to construct quantitative models. In a new process-based workflow we combine geometrical/kinematic and physics-based mechanical forward models. Realistic geometries guide the evolutionary forward model based on kinematic algorithms derived from naturally deformed rocks, while the mechanisms and conditions dictating fracture attributes are modelled directly as a result of key geomechanical properties and underlying physical laws. Collectively this workflow aims to improve understanding of subsurface fracture distributions by representing the inferred strain history and relating this to fracture attributes; this may go some way to addressing any uncertainty regarding the deformation of key stratigraphic intervals and permit construction of more representative fracture network models. The techniques are applied to a real-world data set from the fractured hydrocarbon reservoirs of the Teapot Dome anticline in Wyoming, USA, and specifically a 2D seismic section through the culmination of the structure. The doubly-plunging, basement-cored anticline developed above a blind fault and is modelled as a fault-propagation/trishear evolutionary forward model while tracking the state of strain. The results illustrate the potential of predicting fracture formation throughout the evolution of a structure with high granularity and detail, and in response to the different rock types and their structural position. • New process-based numerical modelling workflow integrating kinematic and physics-based mechanical forward models. • Evolutionary forward model of the Teapot Dome structure in Wyoming, USA. • Utilizing strain to predict fracture network attributes such as intensity and orientation over the deformation history. • Method for predicting fracture networks based on mechanical properties of the deformed layers and structural position.