AccScience Publishing / JSE / Online First / DOI: 10.36922/JSE026140061
ARTICLE

High-resolution characterization of in-situ stress fields in coal reservoirs from pre-stack inversion of mechanical parameters

Zhenhao Yin1 Suoliang Chang1* Sheng Zhang1,2* Xiaohui Li3 Can Li3 Yanjun Meng1 Taotao Yan1
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1 College of Geological and Surveying Engineering, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, China
2 Shanxi Institute of Geological Survey, Taiyuan, China
3 North China Petroleum Bureau, SINOPEC, Zhengzhou, China
Received: 3 April 2026 | Revised: 28 April 2026 | Accepted: 29 April 2026 | Published online: 22 May 2026
© 2026 by the Author(s). This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ )
Abstract

Deep coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs are characterized by low porosity and low permeability. The complexity of hydraulic fracture networks controls reservoir stimulation efficiency, while the in-situ stress field controls fracture initiation and propagation. To address the challenges posed by the insensitivity of in-situ stress to elastic parameters and the limited accuracy of conventional seismic inversion methods, this study proposes an integrated workflow comprising “rock mechanical parameter inversion—heterogeneous modeling—stress field simulation.” Taking deep coal seams in the northeastern Ordos Basin as the study area, spatially variable mechanical parameters, including Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and density, were obtained through pre-stack seismic direct inversion. These parameters were subsequently input into a finite element model to simulate the three-dimensional in-situ stress field of the No. 8 coal seam of the Taiyuan Formation. The results show good agreement between the simulated values and measured data from six wells, with relative errors for the maximum and minimum horizontal principal stresses below 4.6% and 6.9%, respectively. The study reveals the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of the in-situ stress field in the No. 8 coal seam and identifies areas with a horizontal stress difference of 3–8 MPa as favorable “sweet spots” for hydraulic fracturing. This method overcomes the limitation of conventional simulations that rely on well interpolation for mechanical parameter assignment, which inadequately captures heterogeneity, and achieves an integrated framework combining seismic exploration and geomechanical analysis, providing a reliable scientific basis for fracturing optimization and sweet spot prediction in deep CBM reservoirs.

Keywords
In-situ stress modeling
spatially variable mechanical parameters
Pre-stack seismic inversion
Deep coal reservoir
Fracturing parameters
Funding
The authors acknowledge the financial support of the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2024YFC2909402) and the Fundamental Research Program of Shanxi Province (202503021211015, 202303021211058).
Conflict of interest
Sheng Zhang serves as an Early Career Editorial Board Members of this journal but were not in any way involved in the editorial and peer-review process conducted for this paper, directly or indirectly. The authors declare they have no competing interests.
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Journal of Seismic Exploration, Electronic ISSN: 0963-0651 Print ISSN: 0963-0651, Published by AccScience Publishing