Determination of minimum and maximum stress profiles using wellbore failure evidences: a case study—a deep oil well in the southwest of Iran
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Abstract
The main objective of this paper is estimating the horizontal stresses and calibration of the log-derived horizontal stress profiles in deep oil wells according to their wall failure evidences, including both compressive (breakouts) and tensile failures (drilling-induced tensile fractures). Estimation of the horizontal stress profiles using well logs is one of the standard methods in the oil industry. Another method for estimating horizontal stresses is analyzing failure evidences in the wellbore wall. By integrating these two methods, a practical strategy was followed in this research to determine the horizontal stress profiles. By this strategy, minimum and maximum horizontal stress profiles are determined in such a way that the stress concentration at the wellbore wall at the tensile fracture identified depths, exceeds the formation tensile strength, while at the breakouts identified depths it exceeds the compressive strength of the formation. An advantage of this procedure is that does not require to measure in situ stresses. Also, due to the presence of a large number of breakouts and the induced fractures detected in different zones of a deep wellbore, log-derived stress profile calibration is done using the stress state in different zones that causes to increase the accuracy and reliability of the obtained horizontal stress profile. The proposed solution was applied to determine the horizontal stress profiles in a deep oil well in the southwest of Iran as a real case.
Keywords
Stress profile Wellbore failure Well logs Formation strength Tectonic strainsIntroduction
Orientation and magnitude of principal stresses in hydrocarbon fields in are considered as a very important information in Petroleum Engineering. The stress state in the earth’s crust controls stress concentration around a wellbore and therefore plays a critical role in wellbore instability, well stimulation operations, fluid flow in fractured reservoirs, and sand production (Bell 1996; Willson et al. 1999). Knowledge of the stress state is not only important in the petroleum industry, but it is also vital in geotechnical applications and other solid earth sciences. Thus, widespread studies have been conducted and different measurement methods and theories or empirical relationships have been established for estimating the stress state in the earth’s crust. The underground stress state, with a simplifying assumption, can be described by three mutually orthogonal principal stress components, i.e., a vertical stress (S v) and two horizontal principal stresses (S H and S h). S v is a factor due to weight of the overburden, and its magnitude can be calculated using overburden density log (McGarr and Gay 1978). According to Zoback et al. (2003), hydraulic fracturing test, leak-off test (LOT), and measurement of pressure while drilling (PWD) are three common methods for the least principal stress measurement in the deep wells. The magnitude of minimum horizontal stress (S h) in the normal and strike-slip faulting regimes can be measured using the mentioned methods. Measurement of the maximum horizontal stress (S H) using the mentioned methods is not directly possible (Zoback 2010) and is required to use theoretical and empirical relationships to estimate S H based on S h and S v values (Binh et al. 2011; Zang et al. 2012). Also, other than being expensive and time-consuming, these tests cannot provide continuous horizontal stress profiles (Song and Hareland 2012; Sone and Zoback 2014). Therefore, development of the theoretical relationships for predicting stress state in deep oil wells is always of interest for the oil industry. In the following sections, first, the conventional techniques for determining horizontal stress profiles using the well logs are introduced. A discussion of the relationship between in situ stresses and wall rock strength at formation depths of breakouts and drilling-induced fractures will be given after that. Next, using a mathematically based strategy, the log-derived horizontal stress profiles are calibrated using in situ stress conditions that it can be estimated based on the observed wellbore wall failures at different depths. Finally, the horizontal stress profiles of a deep oil well in the southwest of Iran are determined using the introduced strategy and their results will be checked by analyzing compressive and tensile wellbore failures.
Determination of stress profiles using the well logs (log-derived stress profile)
By adding the tectonic stress term to Eq. 1, the horizontal stress profile can be displaced and its conformity with measured in situ stresses can be increased. The adding tectonic stress value is determined through difference between the measured value of stress at a specific depth and the stress calculated by Eq. 1 at the same depth.
To achieve a log-derived stress profile with acceptable accuracy, at the least, the stress state in one point of well should be defined to calibrate the stress profile, which is required to carry out an in situ stress test in the well. Because the in situ stress measurement data are not available for many of deep oil wells, calibration of the log-derived horizontal stress profile, and reaching to a reliable estimation of the horizontal stress values are not possible for all drilled wells.
Wellbore failures analysis
Calibration of log-derived stress profiles using wellbore failure evidences
For estimating the maximum and minimum horizontal stresses, both mentioned methods have some limitations in practice. Determining the log-derived stress profiles using Blanton and Olson (1999) method (Eqs. 3, 4) the stress state must be known in a depth of the well that is not available for many deep oil wells. Also, for determination of a particular range of horizontal stresses using analysis of the wellbore failure evidences, both breakout and induced tensile fracture must be available at the same depth of the wellbore. Thus, application of this method becomes limited, as in many cases, the breakouts and induced tensile fractures are not formed at same depths.
To solve Eqs. 11 and 12, they must be assumed equal to zero or equal to a certain amount. Breakout incidence in a wellbore wall indicates that Eq. 11 is equal or greater than zero. Also, the occurrence of induced fracture suggests that Eq. 12 is equal or less than zero. These equations can be considered approximately equal to zero at both end points of breakouts and induced fractures. Therefore, the data obtained from these points are used for solving Eqs. 11 and 12. Hence, in Eqs. 11 and 12, tectonic strain parameters of ε x and ε y are the only unknown, using two calibration points, these equations will be solved and these two unknown parameters can be determined. With replacing elastic properties of the wall rock and the other parameters for each end point of a wellbore failure, an equation will be obtained. However, considering the inaccuracies and errors in involved data, the use of more calibration points can be caused to increase the accuracy level of the results. In many cases, there are several breakouts and induced fractures at different depths of a wellbore and, therefore, more than two equations can be obtained. Hence, to improve the accuracy level of the estimated tectonic strain parameters, the least-squares approach was used in this study.
Applications and validation of the results
a Azimuth of horizontal stresses based on orientation of wellbore failures in the studied well, b Map of maximum and minimum horizontal stress orientations in Iran (Zarifi et al. 2013)
As shown in Fig. 1, the orientation of borehole breakouts that indicate azimuth of S h is about 43° and the orientation of induced fractures that indicate azimuth of S H is about 133°.
Logs of elastic moduli (Young’s modulus, Poisson ratio) and strength parameters (UCS, T 0, and Nϕ) for the studied interval
Using FMI images, 24 points, i.e., 12 breakouts and 12 induced fractures, were selected in the studied interval. On the basis of the proposed solution, the optimum values for ε x and ε y (two unknown parameters) with a minimum error in these 24 points are 5.1e−4 and −6.8e−4, respectively.
Estimated three principal stress profile in the studied interval
The circumferential effective stress (\(\sigma_{\theta \theta }\)) and the strength of formation (horizontal dash line) in different parts of the indicated breakout and induced fracture in the studied interval
Stress polygon that define possible magnitudes of S h and S H at the depth of 4143 m. Dash line represent the stress condition of occurring or do not occurring of induced tensile fracture and dash-dot line represent the required stress condition for forming of breakout with W bo = 46°. Blue point indicates horizontal stresses at the depth 4143 m based on the log-derived stress profile
As shown in Fig. 5, the horizontal stresses derived from the calibrated stress profile at the mentioned depth, fall within the possible range of stresses (see study carried out by Zoback et al. 2003).
Compression of calculated (dash line) and observed breakout widths in different depths of the wellbore
As displayed in Fig. 6, there is an acceptable compliance between the calculated and the actual breakout widths that indicates accuracy level of the estimated horizontal stresses.
Conclusions
In this research, a practical strategy for calibration of the log-derived stress profile using failure evidences of the wells was developed. In this strategy, as discussed earlier, the minimum and maximum horizontal stress profiles were determined. In the proposed approach, values of two tectonic strains in horizontal plane (ε x and ε y) used for calibration of log-derived stress profiles are assumed constant in the studied interval and are determined based on stress conditions in the detected failure evidence at the wellbore wall. Therefore, using this strategy, the magnitude of tectonic strain in two directions (ε x and ε y) can be determined, and it is not required to consider one of these parameters equal to zero. Considering the proposed method, the maximum and minimum horizontal stress profiles of a deep oil well in the southwest of Iran were calibrated based on wellbore failure evidences detected at different depths. Comparing the obtained values of horizontal stresses at various depths of the studied interval using this method and other techniques indicates the reliability of the estimated stress profiles. The proposed technique in this study can be used in the other projects with similar conditions.
Notes
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express their appreciation to the National Iranian South Oil company for providing filed data and also permission of using data. Moreover, the authors really appreciate Dr. A. Moradi and Dr. Armaghani for his technical help and advice.
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