In-Situ Stresses, Rock Strength, Fluid Pressure, And Implications For Wellbore Stability And Oil And Gas Development In The Seboro and Tiaka Fields, Sulawesi, Indonesia

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Power
2019 ◽  
Vol 2019 ◽  
pp. 1-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yongxiang Zheng ◽  
Jianjun Liu ◽  
Bohu Zhang

The in situ stress has an important influence on fracture propagation and fault stability in deep formation. However, the development of oil and gas resources can only be determined according to the existing state of in situ stress in most cases. It is passive acceptance of existing in situ stress. Unfortunately, in some cases, the in situ stress conditions are not conducive to resource development. If the in situ stress can be interfered in some ways, the stress can be adjusted to a more favorable state. In order to explore the method of artificial interference, this paper established the calculation method of the in situ stress around the cracks based on fracture mechanics at first and obtained the redistribution law of the in situ stress. Based on the obtained redistribution law, attempts were made to interfere with the surrounding in situ stress by water injection in the preexisting crack. On this basis, the artificial stress intervention was applied. The results show that artificial interference of stress can effectively be achieved by water injection in the fracture. And changing the fluid pressure in the crack is the most effective way. By stress artificial intervention, critical pressure for water channelling in fractured reservoirs, directional propagation of cracks in hydraulic fracturing, and stress adjustment on the structural plane were applied. This study provides guidance for artificial stress intervention in the exploitation of the underground resource.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khaqan Khan ◽  
Mohammad Altwaijri ◽  
Sajjad Ahmed

Abstract Drilling oil and gas wells with stable and good quality wellbores is essential to minimize drilling difficulties, acquire reliable openhole logs data, run completions and ensure well integrity during stimulation. Stress-induced compressive rock failure leading to enlarged wellbore is a common form of wellbore instability especially in tectonic stress regime. For a particular well trajectory, wellbore stability is generally considered a result of an interplay between drilling mud density (i.e., mud weight) and subsurface geomechanical parameters including in-situ earth stresses, formation pore pressure and rock strength properties. While role of mud system and chemistry can also be important for water sensitive formations, mud weight is always a fundamental component of wellbore stability analysis. Hence, when a wellbore is unstable (over-gauge), it is believed that effective mud support was insufficient to counter stress concentration around wellbore wall. Therefore, increasing mud weight based on model validation and calibration using offset wells data is a common approach to keep wellbore stable. However, a limited number of research articles show that wellbore stability is a more complex phenomenon affected not only by geomechanics but also strongly influenced by downhole forces exerted by drillstring vibrations and high mud flow rates. Authors of this paper also observed that some wells drilled with higher mud weight exhibit more unstable wellbore in comparison with offset wells which contradicts the conventional approach of linking wellbore stability to stresses and rock strength properties alone. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to analyze wellbore stability considering both geomechanical and drilling parameters to explain observed anomalous wellbore enlargements in two vertical wells drilled in the same field and reservoir. The analysis showed that the well drilled with 18% higher mud weight compared with its offset well and yet showing more unstable wellbore was, in fact, drilled with more aggressive drilling parameters. The aggressive drilling parameters induce additional mechanical disturbance to the wellbore wall causing more severe wellbore enlargements. We devised a new approach of wellbore stability management using two-pronged strategy. It focuses on designing an optimum weight design using geomechanics to address stress-induced wellbore failure together with specifying safe limits of drilling parameters to minimize wellbore damage due to excessive downhole drillstring vibrations. The findings helped achieve more stable wellbore in subsequent wells with hole condition meeting logging and completion requirements as well as avoiding drilling problems.


SPE Journal ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (05) ◽  
pp. 1957-1981 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chao Liu ◽  
Yanhui Han ◽  
Hui–Hai Liu ◽  
Younane N. Abousleiman

Summary When drilling through naturally fractured formations, the existence of natural fractures affects the fluid diffusion and stress distribution around the wellbore and induces degradation of rock strength. For chemically active formations, such as shale, the chemical–potential difference between the drilling mud and the shale–clay matrix further complicates the nonmonotonic coupled pore–pressure processes in and around the wellbore. In this work, we apply a recently formulated theory of dual–porosity/permeability porochemoelectroelasticity to predict the time evolution of mud–weight windows, while calculating stresses and pore pressure around an inclined wellbore drilled in a fractured shale formation. The effects of natural–fracture geometric and spatial distributions coupled with the chemical activity are considered in the wellbore–stability analysis. To account for the degrading effect of the fractured shale matrix on the bulk rock strength, a modified Hoek–Brown (MHB) criterion is developed to more closely describe the in–situ state of stress effects on the compressive shearing strength at great depth. Compared with the original Hoek–Brown (HB) failure criterion, the MHB criterion considers the influence of the intermediate principal stress and thus shows better agreement with true–triaxial data for various rocks at varying stress levels. The MHB criterion converges to the original HB criterion when the confining in–situ stresses are equal. Two field case studies indicate that this novel integrative methodology is capable of predicting the operational drilling–mud–weight windows used in these two cases. Another advantage of this newly developed technique is that it can be used as a back–analysis tool to estimate the fracture–matrix permeability from field operational data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 1777-1786 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brandon C. McAdams ◽  
Kimberly E. Carter ◽  
Jens Blotevogel ◽  
Thomas Borch ◽  
J. Alexandra Hakala

Chemical changes to hydraulic fracturing fluids within fractured unconventional reservoirs may affect hydrocarbon recovery and, in turn, the environmental impact of unconventional oil and gas development.


2013 ◽  
Vol 2013 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Junliang Yuan ◽  
Jingen Deng ◽  
Yong Luo ◽  
Shisheng Guo ◽  
Haishan Zhang ◽  
...  

Long-term oil and gas exploitation in reservoir will lead to pore pressure depletion. The pore pressure depletion will result in changes of horizontal in-situ stresses both in reservoirs and caprock formations. Using the geophysics logging data, the magnitude and orientation changes of horizontal stresses in caprock and reservoir are studied. Furthermore, the borehole stability can be affected by in-situ stresses changes. To address this issue, the dehydration from caprock to reservoir and roof effect of caprock are performed. Based on that, the influence scope and magnitude of horizontal stresses reduction in caprock above the depleted reservoirs are estimated. The effects of development on borehole stability in both reservoir and caprock are studied step by step with the above geomechanical model.


2013 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 767-788 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Fischer ◽  
A. Henk

Abstract. The optimal use of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs depends, amongst others, on the local tectonic stress field. For example, wellbore stability, orientation of hydraulically induced fractures and – especially in fractured reservoirs – permeability anisotropies are controlled by the recent in situ stresses. Faults and lithological changes can lead to stress perturbations and produce local stresses that can significantly deviate from the regional stress field. Geomechanical reservoir models aim for a robust, ideally "pre-drilling" prediction of the local variations in stress magnitude and orientation. This requires a~numerical modelling approach that is capable to incorporate the specific geometry and mechanical properties of the subsurface reservoir. The workflow presented in this paper can be used to build 3-D geomechanical models based on the Finite Element Method (FEM) and ranging from field-scale models to smaller, detailed submodels of individual fault blocks. The approach is successfully applied to an intensively faulted gas reservoir in the North German Basin. The in situ stresses predicted by the geomechanical FE model were calibrated against stress data actually observed, e.g. borehole breakouts and extended leak-off tests. Such a validated model can provide insights into the stress perturbations in the inter-well space and undrilled parts of the reservoir. In addition, the tendency of the existing fault network to slip or dilate in the present-day stress regime can be addressed.


Solid Earth ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 347-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Fischer ◽  
A. Henk

Abstract. The optimal use of conventional and unconventional hydrocarbon reservoirs depends, amongst other things, on the local tectonic stress field. For example, wellbore stability, orientation of hydraulically induced fractures and – especially in fractured reservoirs – permeability anisotropies are controlled by the present-day in situ stresses. Faults and lithological changes can lead to stress perturbations and produce local stresses that can significantly deviate from the regional stress field. Geomechanical reservoir models aim for a robust, ideally "pre-drilling" prediction of the local variations in stress magnitude and orientation. This requires a numerical modelling approach that is capable to incorporate the specific geometry and mechanical properties of the subsurface reservoir. The workflow presented in this paper can be used to build 3-D geomechanical models based on the finite element (FE) method and ranging from field-scale models to smaller, detailed submodels of individual fault blocks. The approach is successfully applied to an intensively faulted gas reservoir in the North German Basin. The in situ stresses predicted by the geomechanical FE model were calibrated against stress data actually observed, e.g. borehole breakouts and extended leak-off tests. Such a validated model can provide insights into the stress perturbations in the inter-well space and undrilled parts of the reservoir. In addition, the tendency of the existing fault network to slip or dilate in the present-day stress regime can be addressed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahmood R. Al-Khayari ◽  
Adel M. Al-Ajmi ◽  
Yahya Al-Wahaibi

In oil industry, wellbore instability is the most costly problem that a well drilling operation may encounter. One reason for wellbore failure can be related to ignoring rock mechanics effects. A solution to overcome this problem is to adopt in situ stresses in conjunction with a failure criterion to end up with a deterministic model that calculates collapse pressure. However, the uncertainty in input parameters can make this model misleading and useless. In this paper, a new probabilistic wellbore stability model is presented to predict the critical drilling fluid pressure before the onset of a wellbore collapse. The model runs Monte Carlo simulation to capture the effects of uncertainty in in situ stresses, drilling trajectories, and rock properties. The developed model was applied to different in situ stress regimes: normal faulting, strike slip, and reverse faulting. Sensitivity analysis was applied to all carried out simulations and found that well trajectories have the biggest impact factor in wellbore instability followed by rock properties. The developed model improves risk management of wellbore stability. It helps petroleum engineers and field planners to make right decisions during drilling and fields’ development.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rajesh Goteti ◽  
Yaser Alzayer ◽  
Hyoungsu Baek ◽  
Yanhui Han

Abstract In this paper, we present results from the first-ever 3D geomechanical model that supports pre-drill prediction of regional in-situ stresses throughout the Arabian Plate. The results can be used in various applications in the petroleum industry such as fault slip-tendency analysis, hydraulic fracture stimulation design, wellbore stability analysis and underground carbon storage. The Arabian tectonic plate originated by rifting of NE Africa to form the Red Sea and the Gulfs of Aden and Aqaba. The continental rifting was followed by the formation of collisional zones with eastern Turkey, Eurasia and the Indo-Australian Plate, which resulted in the formation of the Eastern Anatolian fault system, the fold-thrust belts of Zagros and Makran, and the Owen fracture zone. This present-day plate tectonic framework, and the ongoing movement of the Arabian continental lithosphere, exert a first-order control on the of in-situ stresses within its sedimentary basins. Using data from published studies, we developed a 3D finite element of the Arabian lithospheric plate that takes into account interaction between the complex 3D plate geometry and present-day plate boundary velocities, on elastic stress accumulation in the Arabian crust. The model geometry captures the first-order topographic features of the Arabian plate such as the Arabian shield, the Zagros Mountains and sedimentary thickness variations throughout the tectonic plate. The model results provide useful insights into the variations in in-situ stresses in sediments and crystalline basement throughout Arabia. The interaction between forces from different plate boundaries results in a complex transitional stress state (thrust/strike-slip or normal/strike-slip) in the interior regions of the plate such that the regional tectonic stress regime at any point may not be reconciled directly with the anticipated Andersonian stress regimes at the closest plate boundary. In the sedimentary basin east of the Arabian shield, the azimuths of the maximum principal compressive stresses change from ENE in southeast to ~N-S in northern portions of the plate. The shape of the plate boundary, particularly along the collisional boundaries, plays a prominent in controlling both the magnitude and orientations of the principal stresses. In addition, the geometry of the Arabian shield in western KSA and variations in the sedimentary basin thickness, cause significant local stress perturbations over 10 – 100 km length scales in different regions of the plate. The model results can provide quantitative constraints on relative magnitudes of principal stresses and horizontal stress anisotropy, both of which are critical inputs for various subsurface applications such as mechanical earth model (MEM) and subsequently wellbore stability analysis (WSA). The calibrated model results can potentially reduce uncertainties in input stress parameters for MEM and WSA and offer improvements over traditional in-situ stress estimation techniques.


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