Stress magnitudes across UK regions: new analysis and legacy data across potentially prospective unconventional resource areas

Fellgett, Mark W.; Kingdon, Andrew ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4979-588X; Williams, John D.O.; Gent, Christopher M.A.. 2018 Stress magnitudes across UK regions: new analysis and legacy data across potentially prospective unconventional resource areas. Marine and Petroleum Geology, 97. 24-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2018.06.016

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2018.06.016

Abstract/Summary

Stress magnitude data across the UK is limited spatially and stratigraphically with information available for only 21 sites in the latest release of the World Stress Map. This information is largely derived from geothermal resource exploration and radioactive waste storage site assessment. Active exploration of unconventional resources in the UK has highlighted a lack of information to adequately characterise the stress field, in particular in regions underlain by potentially prospective shale formations. Understanding the in-situ stress conditions is critical to the planning of sub surface operations and the potential extraction of unconventional resources. Legacy stress magnitude data from 75 sites is combined with new analysis of wireline data to re-characterise the stress field across two regions which are underlain by the Bowland Shale Formation which has resource potential for unconventional hydrocarbons. These regions are: East Yorkshire and North Nottinghamshire, and Cheshire and Lancashire. Vertical stress gradients vary between 23 and 26 MPakm−1 for the regions studied. Pore pressure is similar for both regions and is hydrostatic with a gradient of 10.19 MPakm−1. Lower bounds for the minimum horizontal stress have been estimated from the available data and show that the magnitude of the minimum horizontal stress is 2.6 MPakm−1 higher to the east of the Pennines. The compiled legacy data show that the Maximum Horizontal Stress is consistently greater than the vertical stress, which in turn is greater than the minimum horizontal stress, indicating that at depth within the two regions, the faulting regime is predominantly strike-slip.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2018.06.016
ISSN:	0264-8172
Additional Keywords:	In-situ stressStress magnitudePore pressureUnconventional resourcesHydraulic fracturing
NORA Subject Terms:	Earth Sciences Data and Information
Date made live:	27 Jul 2018 14:34 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/520617

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpetgeo.2018.06.016

ISSN:

0264-8172

Additional Keywords:

In-situ stressStress magnitudePore pressureUnconventional resourcesHydraulic fracturing

NORA Subject Terms:

Earth Sciences
Data and Information

Date made live:

27 Jul 2018 14:34 +0 (UTC)