Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Prepared by:
Nikhil G Barshettiwar
OBJECTIVE
To study of stress orientation with respect time in subsalt
To study wellbore stability issues
Modelling of salt creeping
To investigate casing failure in non-uniform subsalt loading using case history
PREREQUISITE
Fundamentals of rock mechanics
Fundamentals of well engineering
SOFTWARE
EXPERIMENTAL SETUP
Experiments can be performed to check salt behaviour w.r.t temperature and pressure. This
experiment can be performed using HPHT reactor.
LITERATURE REVIEW
E&P companies started their major exploration and field developments in Gulf of Mexico,
Campos Basin in Brazil, Angola West Africa. The speciality of these fields is they are taking
place near the sub-salt fields. Drilling through these thick salts provide more effective way to
reach the target reservoir than drilling through surrounding overpressured zone. But
unfortunately drilling in such fields causes more well instability problems [Zee et al, 2011].
Once drilling is finish, completed well when starts producing, it causes another set of
problems. Among them collapsing of casing is the most important one.
Casing collapses can significantly affect the economic developments of the fields. Casing
failure usually associated with intruding 1. salt bodies 2. depletion, compaction and
subsidence of high porosity reservoirs 3. reactivation of faults or discontinuities 4. complex
tectonic active regions [X Shen, 2011].
This study mainly focuses on aspects of casing failure in non-uniform sub-salt loading. Its
very necessary to understand the properties of subsalt which is the causes the failure in
tubular. As per discussion in oilfield review spring 1996 issue, its low permeable nature
makes it best traps for hydrocarbons. The subsurface salt exist pseudoplastic flow nature
under subsurface pressure and temperature. Since salt acts like fluid, applies equal stresses in
all the directions approximately equal to overburden. In case if borehole pressure is less than
in-situ salt strength, it creeps out and reduces openhole diameter. These underguage boreholes
ultimately results in failure of casing.
METHODOLOGY
Initially data will be collected and analyze. Then reservoir static model need to be build using
any reservoir simulator. Model will be imported to geomechanical simulator, where it will be
populated with the mechanical properties of rock. Reservoir scale model and wellbore scale
model will be contacted in ABAQUS. Stress-strain analysis will be conducted. Same analysis
can be use to investigate casing failures. New casing recommendations can be obtained using
LANDMARK for the variable stress in salt dome.