It has become apparent that there are several cases where geomechanics play an integral role in the planning field development. For example, cases requiring sand production management, improved hydraulic fracturing efficiency, reservoir compaction controls, and wellbore instability prevention. All these field operations require knowledge of crustal stress and rock deformation characteristics, while possessing the skills required to model these rock deformation behaviors. For the past few decades, JOGMEC has been conducting collaborative geomechanical studies with operating companies, to help solve the geomechanical challenges they face during field development.
During drilling shale sections, wellbore stability is a major challenge that operating companies often encounter. In support, we conduct laboratory examinations to further understand a rock’s mechanical and chemical properties, and construct mechanical and stress models. This is followed by numerical simulations that address current drilling difficulties, based on statistical analyses from provided drill reports. Based on these results, JOGMEC can optimize mud weight and wellbore trajectory to minimize instability issues, reducing project downtime.
Optimum mud weight by wellbore
trajectory under certain stress conditions