Patent ID: 11365618

Abstract:
Hydraulic fracturing a subterranean formation including to count the number and types of fractures created in real time. The hydraulic fracturing involves injecting a frac slurry having frac fluid and proppant through a wellbore into the subterranean formation, hydraulic fracturing the subterranean formation with the frac slurry, and observing change in fracture counts with changes in proppant size and proppant concentration in the frac slurry. The hydraulic fracturing includes shear fracturing the rock in the subterranean formation. Operating parameters of the hydraulic fracturing may be adjusted in real time to increase the amount of shear fracturing occurring per unit time. Such adjusting may be based on resonant frequency at which the rock fractures with destruction as super shearing. The large surface areas caused by super shearing may assist with diffusion production from areas of high hydrocarbon concentrations (reservoir source rocks) to areas with lower hydrocarbon concentrations (water-filled hydraulic fractures).