Geomechanics Applied to the Petroleum Industry

Book excerpt: Designing an efficient drilling program is a key step for the development of an oil and/or gas field. Variations in reservoir pressure, saturation and temperature, induced by reservoir production or CO2 injection, involve various coupled physical and chemical processes. Geomechanics, which consider all thermohydromechanical phenomena involved in rock behavior, play an important role in every operation involved in the exploitation of hydrocarbons, from drilling to production, and in CO2 geological storage operations as well. Pressure changes in the reservoir modify the in situ stresses and induce strains, not only within the reservoir itself, but also in the entire sedimentary column. In turn, these stress variations and associated strains modify the fluids flow in the reservoir and change the wellbore stability parameters. This book offers a large overview on applications of Geomechanics to petroleum industry. It presents the fundamentals of rock mechanics, describes the methods used to characterise rocks in the laboratory and the modelling of their mechanical behaviour ; it gives elements of numerical geomechanical modelling at the site scale. It also demonstrates the role of Geomechanics in the optimisation of drilling and production : it encompasses drillability, wellbore stability, sand production and hydraulic fracturing ; it provides the basic attainments to deal with the environmental aspects of heave or subsidence of the surface layers, CO2 sequestration and well abandonment ; and it shows how seismic monitoring and geomechanical modelling of reservoirs can help to optimise production or check cap rock integrity. This book will be of interest to all engineers involved in oil field development and petroleum engineering students, whether drillers or producers. It aims also at providing a large range of potential users with a simple approach of a broad field of knowledge.