The instant global trend towards developing tight reservoir is great; however, development can be very challenging due to stress and geomechanical properties effect in horizontal well placement and hydraulic fracturing design. Many parameters are known to be important to determine the suitable layer for locating horizontal well such as petrophysical and geomechanical properties. In the present study, permeability sensitivity to stress is also considered in the best layer selection for well placement. The permeability sensitivity to the stress of the layers was investigated using measurements of 27 core sample at different confining stress values. 1-D mechanical earth model (MEM) was built and converted to a 3-D full-field geomechanical mode

Tight reservoirs have attracted the interest of the oil industry in recent years according to its significant impact on the global oil product. Several challenges are present when producing from these reservoirs due to its low to extra low permeability and very narrow pore throat radius. Development strategy selection for these reservoirs such as horizontal well placement, hydraulic fracture design, well completion, and smart production program, wellbore stability all need accurate characterizations of geomechanical parameters for these reservoirs. Geomechanical properties, including uniaxial compressive strength (UCS), static Young’s modulus (Es), and Poisson’s ratio (υs), were measured experimentally using both static and dynamic met

As a reservoir is depleted due to production, pore pressure decreases leading to increased effective stress which causes a reduction in permeability, porosity, and possible pore collapse or compaction. Permeability is a key factor in tight reservoir development; therefore, understanding the loss of permeability in these reservoirs due to depletion is vital for effective reservoir management. The paper presents a case history on a tight carbonate reservoir in Iraq which demonstrates the behavior of rock permeability and porosity as a function of increasing effective stress simulating a depleting mode over given production time. The experimental results show unique models for the decline of permeability and porosity as function effective str

Rock mechanical properties are critical parameters for many development techniques related to tight reservoirs, such as hydraulic fracturing design and detecting failure criteria in wellbore instability assessment. When direct measurements of mechanical properties are not available, it is helpful to find sufficient correlations to estimate these parameters. This study summarized experimentally derived correlations for estimating the shear velocity, Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, and compressive strength. Also, a useful correlation is introduced to convert dynamic elastic properties from log data to static elastic properties. Most of the derived equations in this paper show good fitting to measured data, while some equations show scatters

Optimum perforation location selection is an important study to improve well production and hence in the reservoir development process, especially for unconventional high-pressure formations such as the formations under study. Reservoir geomechanics is one of the key factors to find optimal perforation location. This study aims to detect optimum perforation location by investigating the changes in geomechanical properties and wellbore stress for high-pressure formations and studying the difference in different stress type behaviors between normal and abnormal formations. The calculations are achieved by building one-dimensional mechanical earth model using the data of four deep abnormal wells located in Southern Iraqi oil fields. The magni

Increasing hydrocarbon recovery from tight reservoirs is an essential goal of oil industry in the recent years. Building real dynamic simulation models and selecting and designing suitable development strategies for such reservoirs need basically to construct accurate structural static model construction. The uncertainties in building 3-D reservoir models are a real challenge for such micro to nano pore scale structure. Based on data from 24 wells distributed throughout the Sadi tight formation. An application of building a 3-D static model for a tight limestone oil reservoir in Iraq is presented in this study. The most common uncertainties confronted while building the model were illustrated. Such as accurate estimations of cut-off permeab

IMPLICATION OF GEOMECHANICAL EVALUATION ON TIGHT RESERVOIR DEVELOPMENT / SADI RESERVOIR HALFAYA OIL FIELD

This research presents a method for calculating stress ratio to predict fracture pressure gradient. It also, describes a correlation and list ideas about this correlation. Using the data collected from four wells, which are the deepest in southern Iraqi oil fields (3000 to 6000) m and belonged to four oil fields. These wells are passing through the following formations: Y, Su, G, N, Sa, Al, M, Ad, and B. A correlation method was applied to calculate fracture pressure gradient immediately in terms of both overburden and pore pressure gradient with an accurate results. Based on the results of our previous research , the data were used to calculate and plot the effective stresses. Many equations relating horizontal effective stress and vertica

The importance of kick tolerance in well operations has recently increased due to its implications in well design, in drilling and well control. To study a simple method for the application of kick tolerance concept in an effective way on the basis of field data, this research purpose is to improve knowledge about Kick Tolerance and represents a technical basis for the discussion on revision of standard procedure. The objective of this work is to review and to present a methodology of determination the kick tolerance parameters using the circulation kicks tolerance concepts. The proposed method allows to know, to evaluate and to analyze the kick tolerance problem in order to make the drilling execution safer and more economical by reducin

Hydrocarbon production might cause changes in dynamic reservoir properties. Thus the consideration of the mechanical stability of a formation under different conditions of drilling or production is a very important issue, and basic mechanical properties of the formation should be determined. There is considerable evidence, gathered from laboratory measurements in the field of Rock Mechanics, showing a good correlation between intrinsic rock strength and the dynamic elastic constant determined from sonic-velocity and density measurements. The values of the mechanical properties determined from log data, such as the dynamic elastic constants derived from the measurement of the elastic wave velocities in the material, should be more accurate t

Accurate and simple techniques for measurement of fluid rheological properties are important for field operations in the oil industry. Marsh Funnels are popular qualitycontrol tools used in the field for drilling fluids and they offer a simple, practical alternative to viscosity measurement. In the normal measurements, a single point (drainage time) is used to determine an average viscosity; little additional information is extracted regarding the non-Newtonian behavior of the fluid. Here, a new model is developed and used to determine the rheological properties of drilling muds and other non-Newtonian fluids using data of fluid density and drainage time collected from a Marsh Funnel as a function of viscosity. The funnel results for viscos

Natural fractures provide an important reservoir space and migration channels for oil and gas reservoirs and control the reservoir potential. Therefore, it is essential to understand the methods for identifying accurate reservoir permeability and characterizing reservoir fractures. In particular, using conventional measurements to identify permeability and characterize fractures is very expensive. While using conventional logging data is very challenging, and an efficient characterization correlation method is urgently needed. In this paper, we have evaluated reservoir potential based on the sensitivity of sonic scanner tools to fluid mobility, maximum stress direction, and fractures presence. This tool provides a continuous estimat

Wellbore instability is one of the most common issues encountered during drilling operations. This problem becomes enormous when drilling deep wells that are passing through many different formations. The purpose of this study is to evaluate wellbore failure criteria by constructing a one-dimensional mechanical earth model (1D-MEM) that will help to predict a safe mud-weight window for deep wells. An integrated log measurement has been used to compute MEM components for nine formations along the studied well. Repeated formation pressure and laboratory core testing are used to validate the calculated results. The prediction of mud weight along the nine studied formations shows that for Ahmadi, Nahr Umr, Shuaiba, and Zubair formations

Accurate pore and fracture pressure detection is a major step in successful drilling operations design. The overestimation of these parameters absolutely leads to serious problems throughout and after well drilling. This study is concerned with the characterization and analysis of the most significant diagenetic processes that degrade or improve the reservoir characteristics of the Mauddud Formation in the Badra oil field. The primary goal of this research is to estimate the pore pressure and fracture pressure using well logging data by Techlog 2015 software in order to assess the impact on the estimation of the mud weight window (MWW). The estimated values of formation pressures are then analyzed according to different diagenetic p

Detecting the optimum layer for well placement, which requires a diverse assortment of tools and techniques, represents a significant challenge in petroleum studies due to its critical impact on minimizing drilling costs and time. This study aims to evaluate integrated geological, petrophysical, seismic, and geomechanical data to identify the optimum zones for well placement. Three different reservoirs were analyzed to account for lateral and vertical variations in reservoir properties. The integrated data from these reservoirs provides many tools for reservoir development, especially to detect appropriate well placement zones based on evaluations of reservoir and geomechanical quality. The Mechanical Earth Model (MEM) was construct

    Mauddud formation is one of the most prominent formations in Northeastern Iraq due to its significant hydrocarbon reserves, making accurate geomechanical characterization essential for safe drilling operations and informed development planning. This study constructs a calibrated post-drill one dimensional mechanical earth model (1D-MEM) for selected wells, levering Techlog software to integrate rock mechanical data, image logs, multi-arm caliper measurements, conventional well logs, drilling reports, and core analyses. The methodology provides a detailed workflow for estimating geomechanical properties from log and image analysis to model calibration. Validation of the 1-D MEM performed through cross-comparison with direct me

   The Sadi reservoir is one of the largest and most important unconventional tight oil reservoirs in southern Iraq. However, it suffers from low production rates, necessitating many development strategies that require a correct and reliable characterization of reservoir fluid properties. Whilst these properties are originally obtained from laboratory experiments, measurement errors often occur despite rigorous workflows, which negatively affect the calculation of reservoir fluid properties. This study utilizes the fluid thermodynamics characterization program (PVTp) to generate a reliable model for determining the oil properties of Sadi reservoir. A methodology was developed to simulate fluid thermodynamic tests, including Differ