4d geomechanical simulations for field development planning

3d and 4d geomechanical can be timeconsuming to build and calibrate. however, once such a model is built, it is relative straightforward to use this model for various field development and management applications. in so doing, the return on the initial investment of time and effort in the creation of a 4d geomechanical model can be substantial. i present a case study where a 4d geomechanical model of a deepwater turbidite field under water flood is used to: assessment of wellbore stability for drilling inclined infill wells after a stuck pipe event  calculation of maximum allowable injection pressures during hydraulic stimulation to avoid outofzone growth of stimulated fractures, and evaluation of risk of fault reactivation during a range of production scenarios for pressure support in order to establish safe operational limits for pressure support. model building uses seismic inversion volumes to constrain a geological facies model, followed by upscaling to a reservoir simulation model and history matching. similarly, a 3d geomechanical property model is built to the seafloor. the calibration of the preproduction stress state of the geomechanical model comprises of matching the results of 3d finite element stress field calculations to 1d wellbore models. the calibration uses a novel method of linking tectonic strain terms in poroelastic equations in the 1d and 3d models. production and injection processes are the computed using a fully coupled finite element based geomechanical flow simulator, solving multiphase (blackoil) fluid flow and geomechanics equations simultaneously on the same computational mesh. the computational mesh is optimized for geomechanical predictions of wellbore and fault stability.

4D geomechanical simulations for field development planning

3D and 4D geomechanical can be timeconsuming to build and calibrate. However, once such a model is built, it is relative straightforward to use this model for various field development and management applications. In so doing, the return on the initial investment of time and effort in the creation of a 4D geomechanical model can be substantial. I present a case study where a 4D geomechanical model of a deepwater turbidite field under water flood is used to: Assessment of wellbore stability for drilling inclined infill wells after a stuck pipe event  Calculation of maximum allowable injection pressures during hydraulic stimulation to avoid outofzone growth of stimulated fractures, and evaluation of risk of fault reactivation during a range of production scenarios for pressure support in order to establish safe operational limits for pressure support. Model building uses seismic inversion volumes to constrain a geological facies model, followed by upscaling to a reservoir simulation model and history matching. Similarly, a 3D geomechanical property model is built to the seafloor. The calibration of the preproduction stress state of the geomechanical model comprises of matching the results of 3D finite element stress field calculations to 1D wellbore models. The calibration uses a novel method of linking tectonic strain terms in poroelastic equations in the 1D and 3D models. Production and injection processes are the computed using a fully coupled finite element based geomechanical flow simulator, solving multiphase (blackoil) fluid flow and geomechanics equations simultaneously on the same computational mesh. The computational mesh is optimized for geomechanical predictions of wellbore and fault stability.