Ella Maria Llanos

PhD student - Geo

Ella Maria Llanos received her Bachelors Degree in Petroleum Engineering in 2000 from the National University of Colombia. After representing her university for one year at the University of Oklahoma she was invited as a special researcher and then joined the graduate department and completed her Masters in 2003. Sponsored by ConocoPhillips Petroleum Company, she worked on a project involving an investigation of the interaction of faults and gridding on the accuracy of fluid flow prediction.

As a reservoir engineer she has a strong interdisciplinary orientation with reservoir characterisation project experience using RMS 7.0, Stratamodel, Petroworks, Stratworks, OpenWorks, and StrataSim/Geo2Flow, VIP and BOAST-98. She is focused on pursuing a PhD with emphasis in GeoMechanics. Ella Maria joined CSIRO Petroleum in July 2003 and currently is working on the interaction of hydraulic fractures and geological discontinuities. Ella Maria is now enrolled in the PhD program of the University of Adelaide

Qualifications

• Petroleum Engineering MSc., University of Oklahoma, USA (01/01 - 07/03)
• Petroleum Engineering BSc., National University of Colombia (08/94 - 12/00)

Employment History

• 07/2003 - 02/2005, Hydraulic Fracturing researcher, CSIRO Petroleum, Melbourne, VIC.
• 05/2002 - 11/2002, Research intern, Phillips Petroleum Company, Oklahoma, USA.
• 06/2001- 08/2001, Software Tester, O'Meara Consulting Inc., Norman, Oklahoma, USA.
• 01/2001 - 01/2001, Software Tester, Landmark Graphics , Austin, Texas - USA.
• 09/2000 - 06/2003, Graduate research assistant, The University of Oklahoma, USA.

PhD Research Project

Hydraulic Fracture Propagation through Geological Discontinuities

Supervisors: Richard Hillis (ASP) and Dr. Robert Jeffrey (CSIRO Petroleum, VIC)

Scholarship support: CSIRO Petroleum, International Postgraduate Research Scholarship and The University of Adelaide Scholarship.

Description

The main purpose of this research project is to measure the stress and strength conditions that lead a hydraulic fracture to cross or arrest or to open the pre-existing discontinuity. The methodology involves fluid injection through sandstone samples under uniaxial and polyaxial laboratory conditions. The experimental setup allows the fracture growth rate to be measured as a function of discontinuity crossing. The effect of the viscosity of the injected fluids and the final geometry of the hydraulic fractures will also be evaluated. Numerical modelling of the experiments will be undertaken to confirm the key parameters controlling crossing. An improved crossing criterion that predicts the interaction of a hydraulic fracture propagating through a geological discontinuity will be developed based on theoretical considerations and experimental verification.

Publications and Posters

1. E.M. Llanos, R. G. Jeffrey, R. R. Hillis and X. Zhang, " Study of the interaction between hydraulic fractures and geological discontinuities ". ARMS 2006, Singapore (November 2006).
2. Llanos, Ella-Maria; Jeffrey, Rob; Hillis, Richard and Zhang, Xi, " Factors influencing whether induced hydraulic fractures cross pre-existing discontinuities ". AAPG 2006, Poster, Perth (November 2006).
3. Zhang, X., Jeffrey, R. G., Llanos, E ., " On Plane-strain fluid-driven shear fracture propagation in elastic solids ". Geophysics Journal International 2005, 163, 419 - 430
4. Zhang, X., Jeffrey, R. G., Llanos, E . and Lecampion, B, " Plane-strain analysis of post-coalescence interaction between fluid-driven cracks and pre-existing fractures ". NARMS GulfRocks 2005, Anchorage, Alaska (USA).
5. Zhang, Xi, Jeffrey, Robert, and Llanos, Ella-Maria , " A Study Of Shear Hydraulic Fracture Propagation " NARMS GulfRocks 2004, Houston, TX (USA).
6. Matejka, M.C., Llanos, E.M ., and Civan, F., " Experimental Determination of the Matrix-to-Fracture Transfer Functions For Oil Recovery by Water Imbibition ," Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering, vol. 33, No. 4, pp. 253-264, 2002