Patent ID: 11899155
Assignee: CENOVUS ENERGY INC.
Field: Civil engineering (Other fields)
Classification: CPC G  E | IPC E  G

Claim 0:
1. A method of reducing water consumption in a fracturing operation, comprising:
imaging a geologic formation surrounding a borehole using a downhole tool within the borehole, the imaging along an axial length of the borehole within the geologic formation, and the imaging creates an image indicative of natural fractures within the geologic formation, wherein the imaging comprises focusing an outbound acoustic energy, launched from the downhole tool, on a volume within the geologic formation spaced away from the borehole, the focusing creating a virtual point source from which a return acoustic energy propagates, wherein the volume of the virtual point source experiences a pressure change due to constructive wave interference of acoustic waves at the volume, and receiving the return acoustic energy, wherein the focusing of the outbound acoustic energy creates the virtual point source using beamforming that emits the outbound acoustic energy from the downhole tool with controlled delays;
identifying, within the image, fractures conducive to hydrocarbon production;
correlating the fractures conducive to hydrocarbon production to fracture zones along the axial length, wherein each fracture zone spans a portion of the axial length, and collectively the fracture zones are less than the axial length; and
identifying locations of the fracture zones to be hydraulically fractured, thereby reducing water consumption compared to hydraulic fracturing along an entirety of the axial length of the borehole within the geologic formation.