MBDCI

High Tectonic Stresses

6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Maurice Dusseault
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Signs of High Stresses

Compressional belts tectonic fabric

Local natural seismicity

Massive breakouts, slip of joints while drilling

Large induced seismicity during production

Radical permeability changes in naturally
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

fractured reservoirs during production

Casing stability problems (e.g. Cusiana)

And so on

Also, exceptionally low hmin leads to issues
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Compressional Conditions
Laramide
Laramide Orogeny
Orogeny
Anticline
Anticline (USA)
(USA)
Thrust and Fold Belt
Appalachians
6-E High Tectonic Stresses
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Thrust Faults

Near mountain
fronts, such as the
Andes foreland
6-E High Tectonic Stresses
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South America Margins

Neuquen
Basin

Active subduction
margins on the west
coast of Chile

Thrust (compressional)
dominated basins near San Jorge
Basin

the Andes front

6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Passive margins exist

on the east side of Magallenes
Basin

Argentina, low hmin

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Nova Scotia Continental Margin

St
Newfoundland

La
wr
en
Slope edge

ecc
an
a
oti

yo
S c

n
va
No

lf
Listric faulting
she
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

e n tal Low hmin shallow

ontin e High overpressures
C l op
l s
ne nta Challenging , p
nti
Co

Abyssal plain
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Listric Faulting and Stresses

Listric faults on continental margins

lead to unusual stress regimes where
the major stress changes from vertical
to near-horizontal at depth
down-to-the-sea faults
steep
at top sea
stress

v
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

slip planes
h

zone where faults coalesce Stresses

(detachment or dcollement zone) change
depth with z!

Low stresses are encountered in the upper zone

High pressures and stresses occur lower down
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Deep Salt Diapir and Stresses

Region of
very
Gas low
Pull Down

horizontal
stress
(extensional
strain)
Mid-Miocene regional pressure boundary
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Top Balder
Top Chalk
Intra Hod/Salt
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Basin and Range NEVADA

A region of
crustal extension,
called the Basin
and Range
6-E High Tectonic Stresses
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Extremely Low hmin

Lost circulation is always a hazard, and this
can happen with mud rings, poor ECD, etc.

Also, in these regions, gas-charged thin zones
are common (sourced from lower gas zones
through hydraulic fracturing)

Gas-cut muds and blowout risks if LC happens
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

In reservoirs with low hmin

 Faulttriggering is an issue
 Casings can be impaired

 Very low PF generated on depletion

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The Cusiana Example

Borehole Stability at Cusiana (Colombia)
 $35,000,000 per hole before changes
 $12-15,000,000 per hole after changes

In an extremely highly stressed environment

 Stress state in situ close to shear HMAX/hmin > 2.2
 In inclined strata
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

 Horizontal wells might solve the problem

The issue is that we are close to the failure

stresses in situ, naturally, and anything we do,
just opening a hole, can drive the rock to failure
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Colombia Tectonics

Pa
na
m Venezuela
a
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

COLOMBIA
Brasil
Ecuador

Peru

http://geology.about.com/library/bl/maps/blcolombiamap.htm http://geology.com/world/colombia-satellite-image.shtml
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Cusiana
Stresses at Cusiana

Colmenares L, Zoback MD. Stress field and seismotectonics of northern

South America. Geology; August 2003; v. 31; no. 8; p. 721724;
MBDCI
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The General Stability Problem

Cusiana Field, 4270 m, discovered in 1989

In foothills just east of last major Andes range

Lithology: alternating sand-shale sequence

Tectonics: active faulting, overthrust belt, very
high in situ shear stress at depth (near failure)
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

10 months drilling time, lost 20-30% of wells

that were spudded, >10% of time spent on
cleaning holes, expensive mud, stuck pipe,
sidetracks, distorted casings, and so on

$35,000,000 per well in 1990-1992 period
6-E High Tectonic Stresses Stresses
MBDCI

Ref: Markley ME, Last N, Mendoza S, Mujica S. Case Studies

of Casing Deformation, IADC/SPE 64561. Dallas TX 2002.
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The Geomechanics Problem

Very high stresses in situ

Relatively weak rocks (mechanical weakness)

Fissile shales dipping at up to 30-40

Inclined joints and fissures that can slip if the
MW is too high, creating hole constrictions
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

These issues led to the problems observed:

 Massive breakouts, sloughing, hole enlargement
 Oil-based muds not effective (ie: natural fractures)

 Stuck pipe from joint displacements

 Hole cleaning problems, tripping problems

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High Tectonic Stresses

, shear stress
MC failure line

Mohrs circle of stresses

for in situ conditions
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

max = c + n tan
c

hmin HMAX n, normal stress

With high in situ stress, failure must occur around borehole.
We cannot avoid failure, we must manage the consequences.
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Yield of Rock Around a Borehole

HMAX
Axial borehole fractures develop
during drilling when MW is higher
hmin than (surges, yield). (This is
related to ballooning as well.)

High shear stresses cause shear

yield, destroying cohesion
Borehole pressure (cementation), weakening the rock
= pw = MW z
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Massive breakouts can develop in

High Cusiana and other highly stressed
transpressional regimes

Low Shear yield and breakouts

Tensile yield and fracture traces

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Tectonics

See The Quest for Stability in the Cusiana
Field (Addis et al., Oilfield Review, 1993)

See the World Stress Project data base

Look at the tectonics: compression is worst

However, extremely low hmin also a problem
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

In drilling, watch the shale shaker!

 Splinterycavings
 Massive sloughing from breakouts, etc.

In production coupled reservoir

geomechanics modeling is strongly advised
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Borehole Breakouts
Borehole failure,
Nevada Test Site
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Geophysical well log

analysis of breakouts
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Breakouts and Extensional Fractures

Well A
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

UBI Well A FMI Well B

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Stress Conditions Near the Drill Bit

core
core

Direction of hole advance

AA BB

Drill core
Drill core

Drill
Drill Tensile
stress
Tensile stress zones
Tensile zones
Tensile stress zone
stress
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

zone

Compressive stresses
in the rock mass
A = Low axial stress
B = High axial stress B.Watson, CSIR - SA
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Disking of Core

Intense disking is
evidence of high in situ
stress, implying that
there may be reservoir
management problems
6-E High Tectonic Stresses
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Cooper Basin, Australia

The v value is
~hmin, but
HMAX is huge!
The effective Courtesy M. Zoback

stress ratio is
about 3 to 3.4.
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Pore pressure is
~hydrostatic.
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Examination of Shale Chips

Mode of failure: shear, spalling, sloughing

Adequate cleaning? po > pw? Remedies?
SPLINTERY TABULAR ANGULAR

Borehole wall

Sheared surfaces Sheared surfaces

6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Preexisting cleavages planes in natural fracture/joint sets

Bedding planes

Top view

Side view
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Stress Trajectories, -V Case

If rock shrinks (-V), the stresses are shed from the region: if
rock expands, the opposite is true, stresses are attracted
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Zone of pressure drop

Stress is transferred, not destroyed (e.g. overburden weight remains constant)

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Reservoir Shearing and Injection

The injection increases the pressure, decreases
the effective stresses, but

The rock can be driven into a condition of
shear, and this can have some beneficial
effects
 Increasedpermeability through shear dilation
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

 Breakdown of thin shale barriers

 Improvement of vertical permeability

 Reduction of heterogeneity effects

 Re-compaction in reservoir production cycles

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Injection Failure Path, M-C Plot

shear stress
Y
Mohr-Coulomb plot This example is for
a normal fault case,
assuming v constant
after p

before p, initial
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

shear in situ conditions

n
h]a h]b v]a v]b
a & b stand for after and before p
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Normal Fault Reactivation

Slip criterion: max = c + ntan
v = 1
stresses production

hmin = 3
drop in lateral stress
through production
production
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

n = n - p
Normal fault plane
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Case Study
Enhanced Flow due to Triggered
Microseismicity, Japan
(Near-Well Scale)
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Courtesy Mark Zoback

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Yufutsu Oil/Gas Reservoir

General Structure:
m N-S trending horst
complex
15k

Depth Range:
4,000m 5,000m

Reservoir Rocks:
Cretaceous granite,
Eocene conglomerate
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Reservoir Type:
Fractured reservoir

10km

courtesy Kazu Tezuka

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Pumping History and AE Activity

Pump Rate

Bottom Pc
Hole
Pressure
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

AE Activity Detected Total:

3711 events

Located Located Total:

Event 703 events
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Numa4

Numa1

W.Numa
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Numa3
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Many Scales of Fractures

Scale of Fracture Length

1cm 0.1m 1m 10m 100m 1km

Seismic Survey Faults, General Structure

FMI Images Fractures crossing boreholes

6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Core Analysis Petrophysical Properties

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Poor Comparison with the Prediction

80

B o t t o m H o le P r e s s u r e
70

(M P a)
60
M e as u r e d
S im u lat e d
50
0 24 48 72 96 120 144

Elap s e d T im e f r o m 2 0 0 5 / 5 / 1 2 1 4 :1 0 :0 0 , h o u r

Observation
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Initial
Prediction
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Not all Fractures! Just Permeable Ones!

Original Model Revised Model

(Including all Fractures) (Highlighting Major Flow Paths)
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

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Geomechanically-Constrained Reservoir Simulation Works

Microseismicity is
Pressure associated with an
Matching injectivity increase of
8X

Observation
6-E High Tectonic Stresses

Modified
Simulation
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