Applied Geomechanics

Course Duration: 5 days, including lecture-based modules and hands-on exercises. Online version available.

Who should attend: Exploration and development geologists, geophysicists, drilling and reservoir engineers, managers, and technical personnel

Course Summary: Understanding the geomechanical system plays an important (critical) role in multiple facets of the petroleum industry, from initial exploratory phases (e.g., seal integrity and pressure analysis), to drilling operations (e.g., desirable wellbore trajectory and wellbore stability), to developmental stages and completion techniques (e.g., setting casing, sand screening, etc.), to reservoir depletion (e.g., compaction and compressibility). Considering that wellbore instability issues alone are a multibillion per year cost to the industry, we must understand the rock behavior in its original static condition through the dynamic changes while drilling and producing. This course provides practical instruction and hands-on examples in the many facets geomechanics plays in our industry.

You Will Learn:

• The fundamentals of the behavior of rocks, including stress and strain (including rock failure), elastic versus nonelastic deformation, brittle and ductile deformation, role of fluids, and so forth.
• To understand the role of geomechanical investigation in exploration through drilling and completion to extraction stages.
• The diversity of datasets from which geomechanical data can be extracted, including seismic aspects, drilling parameters, core and log analyses, formation tests, etc., and how they can be integrated to provide a comprehensive geomechanical model.

Course Topics:

• Fundamentals of rock mechanics and rock properties
• • Discussion of stresses (total, effective, anisotropy, orientation, etc.) and resultant strain (elastic, nonelastic, brittle, ductile, failure, etc.), and properties including elastic moduli (bulk, shear, Poisson’s ratio, etc.) and failure criteria (tensile versus shear failure, failure limits).

• Geomechanics and structural geology

• • Discussion of extraction of geomechanical information through geologic time from understanding the structural system of faulting, folding, fracture development, compaction, etc.
  • Seismic investigations of current static pressure regime (e.g., velocity- and frequency-based pore pressure prediction, p- and s-wave anisotropy, shear wave splitting, nodal analysis)
  • Risk assessment of seal integrity (strata and fault seal) during exploratory stages

• Wellbore Placement and Stability

• • Optimizing wellbore placement, including inclination and azimuth, within the geomechanical system
  • Position relative to the natural fracture system and/or induced fracture system
  • Unconventional aspects of underbalanced drilling (depleted reservoirs or low formation pressure) and oil/gas-shale deposits
  • Stress distribution around the wellbore, monitoring and mitigating borehole breakout and/or induced failure, and LWD imaging and mudlogging techniques
  • Casing design and emplacement, including casing/lining-while-drilling

• Completion Aspects

• • Formation tests (real-time LWD and wireline), leak-off tests, mini-fracs, and pressure transient analysis
  • Hydraulic stimulation and fracturing, including techniques of stimulation, feasibility of stimulation process, fracture orientation versus wellbore orientation, and monitoring techniques (e.g., proximal well and surface tiltmeters, microseismicity and nodal analysis).
  • Limiting fines production, including sand screening techniques

• Reservoir Compaction and Compressibility

• • Reservoir changes with time, including effective stress variations, reservoir compaction, subsidence
  • Mass balance approaches and seismic monitoring

• Additional Techniques and Data Sources

• • Well log techniques (density and acoustic logging, shear wave splitting)
  • Core-derived measurements (p-wave anisotropy, inelastic strain recovery, microseismicity, rock strength experiments)
  • Seismic-derived measurements (velocity- and frequency-based pore pressure prediction, p- and s-wave anisotropy, shear wave splitting, nodal analysis, reservoir monitoring)
  • Other techniques, formation tests, leak-off tests, etc.

• Hands-On Exercises and Examples

• • Numerous hands-on examples and exercises will be used to reinforce key concepts throughout the course.