Discussion of the Paper SPE-187038-MS: Fracture Closure Stress: Reexamining Field and Laboratory Experiments of Fracture Closure Using Modern Interpretation Methodologies

Abstract

In recent years, there has been discussion in the literature regarding methods of estimating the magnitude of the minimum principal stress from subsurface fracture injection tests, commonly called Diagnostic Fracture Injection Tests (DFITs). McClure et al. (2016) used modeling and mathematical analysis to propose that changes should be made to common interpretation techniques. Subsequently, Craig et al. (2017) attempted to refute those findings using field and laboratory observations. This discussion paper reviews the interpretations from Craig et al. (2017) and concludes that their conclusions are unsupported by the data presented.