METHOD FOR PREDICTING WELL RELIABILITY BY COMPUTER SIMULATION

摘要

Methods of predicting earth stresses in response to pore pressure changes in a hydrocarbon-bearing reservoir within a geomechanical system, include establishing physical boundaries for the geomechanical system and acquiring reservoir characteristics. Geomechanical simulations simulate the effects of changes in reservoir characteristics on stress in rock formations within the physical boundaries to determine the rock formation strength at selected nodes in the reservoir. The strength of the rock formations at the nodes is represented by an effective strain (eeff), which includes a compaction strain (ec) and out-of-plane shear strains (?1-3, Y2-3) at a nodal point. The methods further include determining an effective strain criteria (eeff cr) from a history of well failures in the physical boundaries. The effective strain (eeff cr) at a selected nodal point is compared with the effective strain criteria (eeff cr) to determine if the effective strain (eeff) exceeds the effective strain criteria (eeff cr).