Journal of Petroleum & Environmental Biotechnology

Wellbore instability analysis in highly fractured carbonate gas reservoirs

4^th International Conference on Petroleum Engineering

August 15-17, 2016 London, UK

AbdulRahman M AlNutaifi

Saudi Arabian Oil Company, Saudi Arabia

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Pet Environ Biotechnol

Abstract:

A major challenge facing the oil and gas drilling operations is mitigating the encountered wellbore instability issues. Those can vary from loss circulations up to having stuck pipes or tools that may jeopardize well integrity and potentially lead to total loss of wells and assets. These problematic situations are even much more complicated in fractured reservoir environments where predicting the highly fracture zones is important. Analyzing such problems is critical for companies especially in developing offshore fields where one day lost time is in hundreds of millions of dollars. There are various data sources that help in determining the main culprit behind the loss circulation problems from core data, Image logs and well testing data. The field of rock mechanics emerged to connect those phenomena to reservoir rock properties and stress profiles. Coupling this with an intensive analysis of drilling parameters, logging, core testing and other existing wells data builds a work frame that helps in understanding the reasons behind wellbore failures and providing solutions to them. The field under investigation is a highly geo-pressured carbonate gas field. The field development called for drilling vertical and slightly deviated wells. During the field increments, sever loss circulation were encountered that resulted in lost drilling times estimated in millions of US dollars with rig cost up $ 200,000/Day. Other drilling failures includes, stuck drill pipe and difficulties with logging response and log interpretation. The objective of this study is to investigate the wellbore instability events during drilling operations and explain it as a function of rock properties, in-situ earth stress. The role of natural fractures will be highlighted using available data. During the course of the study, existing field�??s and drilled wells available data, seismic data will be analyzed in order to come up with methods to map the loss circulation events and recommendations will be made for future wells drilling programs as well as future work to be carried.

Biography :

Email: anutaifi@gmail.com