Skip to content
WSP WSP
WSP WSP
  • Who we are
    We are the home of ambitious, passionate, and innovative engineering experts, scientists and advisors.

    Read more
    Who we are
    • Our story
    • Future Ready
    • Corporate responsibility
    • Our Offices
    • UK and Ireland Leadership
    • Global Strategic Plan
    • Our impact
    Corporate responsibility
    • Communities
    • Corporate governance
    • Ethics and integrity
    • Health and safety
    • Inclusion and belonging
    • Sustainability
    • UK Policies
    Featured content
    thn-strat-plan-2025
    Pioneering change for empowered growth

    As world shapers, our 2025-2027 Global Strategic Action Plan captures our…

  • What We Do
    We shape the communities of tomorrow and help society thrive.

    Our understanding of local, regional and national needs enables us to deliver solutions that better connect people with places, now and in the future.


    View All

    • Sectors
    • Services
    • Projects
    What We Do
    • Property and buildings
    • Transport and infrastructure
    • Earth and environment
    • Digital services and solutions
    • Planning and development
    • Energy
    • Water
    • Advisory
    Property and buildings
    • Commercial and mixed use
    • Cultural
    • Decarbonising property & buildings
    • Education
    • Existing Buildings
    • Healthcare
    • Heritage
    • High-rise
    • How to net zero
    • Industry
    • Local government
    • Mission critical facilities
    • Modern methods of construction
    • Pharmaceuticals and life science
    • Placemaking development and urban regeneration
    • Residential
    • Sports and stadia
    • Town planning and consulting
    • Workplace
    Transport and infrastructure
    • Asset management
    • Aviation
    • Bridges
    • Defence
    • How to net zero
    • Infrastructure planning and consulting
    • Local government
    • Maritime
    • Project, programme and commercial management
    • Rail and transit
    • Roads and highways
    • Transport planning
    • Tunnels
    Earth and environment
    • Acoustics, noise and vibration
    • Air quality
    • Asbestos and hazardous material
    • Cultural heritage and archaeology
    • Environmental assessment and management
    • How to net zero
    • Kit-of-parts approach
    • Landscape Architecture
    • Nature-based solutions
    • Waste management
    • Water
    Digital services and solutions
    • Daisy
    • Data science advisory solutions
    • Digital and data advisory services
    • Digital solutions for water
    • Digital transport planning
    • How to net zero
    • Kit of parts
    Planning and development
    • Environmental assessment and management
    • How to net zero
    • Infrastructure planning and consulting
    • Land referencing and land assembly
    • Landscape architecture
    • Local government
    • Placemaking development and urban regeneration
    • Stakeholder engagement and strategic communications
    • Town planning and consulting
    • Transport planning
    • Urban planning and design
    Energy
    • Energy transition
    • How to net zero
    • Hydrogen energy
    • Nuclear energy
    • Offshore wind
    • Solar energy
    Water
    • Asset management for water
    • Desalination
    • Digital solutions for water
    • Drinking water supply
    • How to net zero
    • Industrial water
    • Minewater management
    • Nature based solutions
    • Storm water and flood risk management
    • Wastewater treatment
    • Water infrastructure
    • Water planning and advisory
    • Water resources
    Advisory
    • Asset management
    • Data Science Advisory Solutions
    • Digital advisory
    • Economics
    • ESG strategy
    • How to net zero
    • Investor and lenders advisory
    • Net zero and sustainability advisory
    • Project, programme and commercial management
    • Public private partnerships and capital investment
    • Transformation and change management
    Featured content
    thn-net-zero
    How to Net Zero

    How WSP can help you decarbonise with confidence

  • Insights
    Our experts offer compelling insights that provide new perspectives.

    Read inspiring articles that challenge the status quo by reframing current issues, sparking fresh ideas and conversations.

    View all
    Insights
    • Climate
    • Mobility
    • Places
    • Resources
    • Society
    • Technology
    Featured content
    thumbnail-water-research
    Navigating the Waters of Change

    We explore the urgent global water crisis, the innovative strategies being employed…

  • Careers
    What if you could do the kind of work the world needs?

    With us, you can. Make your best impact with WSP, where the culture and people also make it the best work of your life.

    Find out more
    Careers
    • Job opportunities
    • Early Career
    • Experienced Professionals
    • Why join us?
    Featured content
    Thn-Web-Careers-Landing
    Careers in Engineering, Professional Services & the…

    Shape a better future for us all and a brighter future for you. With us, you can.

  • Who we are
    • Our story
    • Future Ready
    • Corporate responsibility
      • Who we are
      • Accountable for Tomorrow
        • Communities
        • Corporate governance
        • Ethics and integrity
        • Health and safety
        • Inclusion and belonging
        • Sustainability
        • UK Policies
    • Our Offices
    • UK and Ireland Leadership
    • Global Strategic Plan
    • Our impact
  • What We Do
    • Property and buildings
      • What We Do
      • Expertise at your service
        • Commercial and mixed use
        • Cultural
        • Decarbonising property & buildings
        • Education
        • Existing Buildings
        • Healthcare
        • Heritage
        • High-rise
        • How to net zero
        • Industry
        • Local government
        • Mission critical facilities
        • Modern methods of construction
        • Pharmaceuticals and life science
        • Placemaking development and urban regeneration
        • Residential
        • Sports and stadia
        • Town planning and consulting
        • Workplace
    • Transport and infrastructure
      • What We Do
      • Expertise at your service
        • Asset management
        • Aviation
        • Bridges
        • Defence
        • How to net zero
        • Infrastructure planning and consulting
        • Local government
        • Maritime
        • Project, programme and commercial management
        • Rail and transit
        • Roads and highways
        • Transport planning
        • Tunnels
    • Earth and environment
      • What We Do
      • Expertise at your service
        • Acoustics, noise and vibration
        • Air quality
        • Asbestos and hazardous material
        • Climate Resilience
        • Cultural heritage and archaeology
        • Environmental assessment and management
        • How to net zero
        • Kit-of-parts approach
        • Landscape Architecture
        • Nature-based solutions
        • Net Zero
        • Waste management
        • Water
    • Digital services and solutions
      • What We Do
        • Cyber Security Services
        • Daisy
        • Data science advisory solutions
        • Digital and data advisory services
        • Digital solutions for water
        • Digital transport planning
        • How to net zero
        • Kit of parts
    • Planning and development
      • What We Do
      • Expertise at your service
        • Environmental assessment and management
        • How to net zero
        • Infrastructure planning and consulting
        • Land referencing and land assembly
        • Landscape architecture
        • Local government
        • Placemaking development and urban regeneration
        • Stakeholder engagement and strategic communications
        • Town planning and consulting
        • Transport planning
        • Urban planning and design
    • Energy
      • What We Do
      • Expertise at your service
        • Energy transition
        • How to net zero
        • Hydrogen energy
        • Nuclear energy
        • Offshore wind
        • Solar energy
    • Water
      • What We Do
        • Asset management for water
        • Desalination
        • Digital solutions for water
        • Drinking water supply
        • How to net zero
        • Industrial water
        • Minewater management
        • Nature based solutions
        • Storm water and flood risk management
        • Wastewater treatment
        • Water infrastructure
        • Water planning and advisory
        • Water resources
    • Advisory
      • What We Do
      • Expertise at your service
        • Asset management
        • Data Science Advisory Solutions
        • Digital advisory
        • Economics
        • ESG strategy
        • How to net zero
        • Investor and lenders advisory
        • Net zero and sustainability advisory
        • Project, programme and commercial management
        • Public private partnerships and capital investment
        • Transformation and change management
  • Insights
    • Climate
    • Mobility
    • Places
    • Resources
    • Society
    • Technology
    • Meet our Changemakers
  • Careers
    • Job opportunities
    • Early Career
    • Experienced Professionals
    • Why join us?
Select your language and location

We are locally dedicated with international scale.

International
  • Global
    English — Français
Americas
  • Brazil
    Português
  • Canada
    English — Français
  • Chile
    Español
  • Colombia
    Español
  • Mexico
    Español
  • Panama
    Español
  • Peru
    Español
  • United States
    English
Africa
  • South Africa
    English
Asia
  • China
    中文(简体) — English
  • Hong Kong
    English
  • India
    English
  • Indonesia
    English
  • Malaysia
    English
  • Philippines
    English
  • Singapore
    English
  • South Korea
    한국어(대한민국) — English
  • Thailand
    English
Europe
  • Denmark
    Dansk
  • Finland
    Suomi
  • France
    Français
  • Germany
    Deutsch
  • Hungary
    English
  • Italy
    Italiano
  • Netherlands
    Nederlands
  • Norway
    Norsk
  • Poland
    Polski
  • Romania
    English
  • Spain
    Español
  • Sweden
    Svenska
  • Switzerland
    Deutsch — Français
  • Turkey
    Turkish
  • United Kingdom
    English
Middle East
  • Kuwait
    English
  • Oman
    English
  • Qatar
    English
  • Saudi Arabia
    English
  • United Arab Emirates
    English
Oceania
  • Australia
    English
  • New Zealand
    English
Worldwide offices
    • Investors
      Discover our diverse business, financial results and strategic ambitions.

      We are committed to delivering sustainable value to our shareholders and exceptional professional services to our clients.

      Find out more
      Investors
      • Corporate governance
      • Press releases
      • Reports and filings
      • Stock information
      • Shareholder information
      • Presentations and events
      Corporate governance
      • Audit committee
      • Board of directors
      • Business Conduct Hotline
      • Constating documents
      • Governance documents
      • Governance ethics and compensation committee
      • Mandates
      Reports and filings
      • AIF
      • Annual
      • Information circular
      • Quarterly
      • SEDAR+ filings
      • Sustainability
      Stock information
      • Analyst coverage
      Shareholder information
      • Acquisitions
      • Dividends
      • FAQ
      Featured content
      Thn-Web-IR-2025-Q1-Results
      WSP's Q1 2025 Results

      We released our 2025 first quarter results on May 7, 2025 after market close.

    • Investors
      • Corporate governance
        • Investors
        • Corporate Governance
          • Audit committee
          • Board of directors
          • Business Conduct Hotline
          • Constating documents
          • Governance documents
          • Governance ethics and compensation committee
          • Mandates
      • Press releases
      • Reports and filings
        • Investors
        • REPORTS & FILINGS
          • AIF
          • Annual
          • Information circular
          • Quarterly
          • SEDAR+ filings
          • Sustainability
      • Stock information
        • Investors
        • Stock Information
          • Analyst coverage
      • Shareholder information
        • Investors
        • Shareholder Information
          • Acquisitions
          • Dividends
          • Drip
          • FAQ
      • Presentations and events
    • News
      Progress happens quickly.

      Stay up to date with our projects, news, events and more.

      News
      • Latest news
      • WSP in the media
      • Our Awards
      • Events and webinars
      Featured content
      our-awards-thumbnail-image (1)
      Award Winning Engineering and Project Management

    • Contact us
      We are dedicated to our local communities and driven by global talent.

      We solve problems for our clients and the communities we serve, meeting the needs of today and tomorrow’s challenges. Contact us to find out how we…

      Contact Us

      Follow us

      Contact us
      • Request a proposal
      • Send a message
      • Find an expert
      • Offices
    • Investors
      Discover our diverse business, financial results and strategic ambitions.

      We are committed to delivering sustainable value to our shareholders and exceptional professional services to our clients.

      Find out more
      Investors
      • Corporate governance
      • Press releases
      • Reports and filings
      • Stock information
      • Shareholder information
      • Presentations and events
      Corporate governance
      • Audit committee
      • Board of directors
      • Business Conduct Hotline
      • Constating documents
      • Governance documents
      • Governance ethics and compensation committee
      • Mandates
      Reports and filings
      • AIF
      • Annual
      • Information circular
      • Quarterly
      • SEDAR+ filings
      • Sustainability
      Stock information
      • Analyst coverage
      Shareholder information
      • Acquisitions
      • Dividends
      • FAQ
      Featured content
      Thn-Web-IR-2025-Q1-Results
      WSP's Q1 2025 Results

      We released our 2025 first quarter results on May 7, 2025 after market close.

    • Investors
      • Corporate governance
        • Investors
        • Corporate Governance
          • Audit committee
          • Board of directors
          • Business Conduct Hotline
          • Constating documents
          • Governance documents
          • Governance ethics and compensation committee
          • Mandates
      • Press releases
      • Reports and filings
        • Investors
        • REPORTS & FILINGS
          • AIF
          • Annual
          • Information circular
          • Quarterly
          • SEDAR+ filings
          • Sustainability
      • Stock information
        • Investors
        • Stock Information
          • Analyst coverage
      • Shareholder information
        • Investors
        • Shareholder Information
          • Acquisitions
          • Dividends
          • Drip
          • FAQ
      • Presentations and events
    • News
      • Latest news
      • WSP in the media
      • Our Awards
      • Events and webinars
    • Contact us
      • Request a proposal
      • Send a message
      • Find an expert
      • Offices
  1. We are WSP
  2. Insights
  3. FracMan Hydraulic Fracture Simulation Answers Key Shale Gas Questions

FracMan Hydraulic Fracture Simulation Answers Key Shale Gas Questions

For ultra-low permeability rocks like shale, production of gas or oil is all about the fractures – both induced and naturally occurring.

How well you’re able to define and understand the fracture network drives the solutions to key operational decisions such as:

  1. Where are the optimal locations?
  2. How should reservoirs be completed?
  3. How should development be staged and prioritized?
  4. What is the expected ultimate recovery and its associated uncertainty?

WSP has found that the answers for unconventional gas resources and production benefit from geologically and mechanically realistic 3-D analysis of the interaction of natural and hydraulic fractures during hydrofracturing and production. This is based on our work with nearly three-quarters of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, and most of the world’s major mining companies.

FracMan Sets Standard for 3-D Discrete Fracture Network Simulation


WSP first introduced its FracMan® discrete fracture network modeling software some 30 years ago. Since 1987, our interdisciplinary teams of geologists and engineers have used FracMan for fractured rock masses throughout the world — for nuclear waste repositories, underground and surface mines, tunnels, slopes, dams, environmental projects, conventional carbonate oil and gas reservoirs, and coal bed methane projects.

FracMan provides a geologically realistic, 3-D quantitative description of the spatially varying natural fracture and its hydromechanical properties, and uses this understanding to engineer the safe and economically efficient development of fractured rock masses for civil, mining and oil resources.

Next Generation FracMan Provides Unparalleled Realism for Design of Hydraulic Fracturing Operations

In the past 10 years, WSP has incorporated critical new capabilities for analysis and modeling of hydraulic fractures into FracMan and created the world’s first truly 3-D hydraulic fracture DFN simulator.

The 3-D DFN hydraulic fracture simulator directly assists with achieving optimal well locations, trajectories, completions, and stimulations. This provides our clients with clear value in improved production, lower development costs and improved environmental protection.

Re-Fracturing for Added Cost-Efficient Production


Current oil/gas market economics put the focus squarely on reducing costs. Many companies have turned to WSP to assist them with the re-stimulation of existing wells to provide increased production at a lower cost than the drilling and completion of new wells. Re-stimulation must strategically target remaining reserves, which requires an accurate prediction of the stress re-distribution produced by the initial hydrofracturing, and the associated changes in local rock strength and deformability. FracMan’s DFN geo-mechanics/hydro-dynamics simulator allows us to work with the client’s operations team to create and validate models of the initial phase of hydrofracturing, and then to rapidly explore alternative re-stimulation designs without having to resort to the high-cost practice of carrying out multiple alternative designs in the field.

3-D Fracture Modeling Valuable for Geohazard Risk Analysis


The hydraulic fracture simulations have also proved valuable in geohazard risk assessments, providing an understanding of induced seismicity and mitigation of seismic risks, along with the assessment of potential migration of frac fluids from the reservoir to any overlying aquifers or accessible environment. These types of calculations directly feed into the work of WSP’s environmental and safety teams that perform Environmental and Social Impact Assessments necessary for permitting and licenses.

The Next Challenge


Our international team within WSP’s FracMan Technology Group is currently studying the production rates of unconventional reservoirs and how might the industry avert the significant decrease in production that can occur as early as 12 to 18 months into most unconventional wells’ production cycle. We’re using FracMan’s geomechanic and hydrodynamic modeling features to help uncover answers for sustaining economic rates of production over longer periods of time and minimize social and environmental risk.



Share this page

  • Share on Facebook - Warning, this link will open a new tab.
  • Share on Linkedin - Warning, this link will open a new tab.
  • Share on Twitter - Warning, this link will open a new tab.
  • Share on Skype - Warning, this link will open your Skype application.

  •  
  •   Page will open in a new tab
  •   Page will open in a new tab
  •   Page will open in a new tab
  •   Page will open in a new tab
  • Who We Are
  • Our story
  • Future Ready
  • UK and Ireland leadership
  • Our offices
  • What We Do
  • Sectors
  • Services
  • Projects
  • Insights
  • Climate
  • Mobility
  • Places
  • Society
  • Resources
  • Technology
  • Careers
  • Job opportunities
  • Early career
  • Experienced professionals
  • Why join us?
  • Corporate
  • Policies
  • Sustainability
  • Health and safety
  • Investors
  • Business Conduct Hotline
  • News
  • Corporate governance
  • Ethics and integrity
    ©2025 WSP
    • The WSP logo
    • Privacy notice
    • Anti-spam commitment
    • UK corporate governance statement
    • UK policies
    • Cookie notice
    • Terms of use
    • Supplying to WSP
    ©2025 WSP
    Exiting our Website

    You are about to leave WSP.com and are being redirected to a job opportunity at Louis Berger, which has been recently acquired by WSP in the US.