Determining a mudweight of drilling fluids for drilling through naturally fractured formations

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10837279-B2
Application number	US-201916709478-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 10, 2019
Priority date	Feb 27, 2018
Publication date	Nov 17, 2020
Grant date	Nov 17, 2020

Abstract

The present disclosure describes methods and systems, including computer-implemented methods, computer program products, and computer systems, for determining a mudweight of drilling fluids in a hydrocarbon reservoir. One computer-implemented method includes: receiving pore pressure data of a rock formation in the hydrocarbon reservoir; determining permeability data of fractures of the hydrocarbon reservoir; determining Hoek-Brown failure criterion data; and determining a safe mudweight window based on the pore pressure data of the rock formation, the permeability data of the fractures, and the Hoek-Brown failure criterion data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for determining a safe mudweight window of drilling fluids in a hydrocarbon reservoir, comprising:
outputting, using a graphical user interface (GUI), a list of tasks, wherein the list of tasks include a mud weight window calculation task;
receiving, by the GUI, a user selection of the mud weight window calculation task;
in response to receiving the user selection, determining the safe mudweight window based on pore pressure data of a rock formation in the hydrocarbon reservoir, permeability data of fractures of the hydrocarbon reservoir, and a Hoek-Brown failure criterion parameter that is calculated based on a geological strength index and a disturbance factor of the rock formation;
displaying, by the GUI, the determined safe mudweight window.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the determined safe mudweight window comprises displaying a first curve representing critical collapse mudweight (CMW) and a second curve representing fracturing mudweight (FMW).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein displaying the determined safe mudweight window comprises displaying the determined safe mudweight window at a plurality of depths.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the list of tasks further include a stress curve task, a stress color map task, a failure potential curve task, a failure region task, or a polar chart task.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the safe mudweight window is determined further based on well trajectory data of the rock formation.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the safe mudweight window is determined further based on elastic properties data of the rock formation.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a computer to perform operations comprising:
outputting, using a graphical user interface (GUI), a list of tasks, wherein the list of tasks include a mud weight window calculation task;
receiving, by the GUI, a user selection of the mud weight window calculation task;
in response to receiving the user selection, determining a safe mudweight window based on pore pressure data of a rock formation in the hydrocarbon reservoir, permeability data of fractures of a hydrocarbon reservoir, and a Hoek-Brown failure criterion parameter that is calculated based on a geological strength index and a disturbance factor of the rock formation;
displaying, by the GUI, the determined safe mudweight window.

8. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein displaying the determined safe mudweight window comprises displaying a first curve representing critical collapse mudweight (CMW) and a second curve representing fracturing mudweight (FMW).

9. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein displaying the determined safe mudweight window comprises displaying the determined safe mudweight window at a plurality of depths.

10. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the list of tasks further include a stress curve task, a stress color map task, a failure potential curve task, a failure region task, or a polar chart task.

11. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the safe mudweight window is determined further based on well trajectory data of the rock formation.

12. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 7 , wherein the safe mudweight window is determined further based on elastic properties data of the rock formation.

13. A device, comprising:
at least one hardware processor; and
a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to the at least one hardware processor and storing programming instructions for execution by the at least one hardware processor, wherein the programming instructions, when executed, cause the at least one hardware processor to perform operations comprising:
outputting, using a graphical user interface (GUI), a list of tasks, wherein the list of tasks include a mud weight window calculation task;
receiving, by the GUI, a user selection of the mud weight window calculation task;
in response to receiving the user selection, determining a safe mudweight window based on pore pressure data of a rock formation in the hydrocarbon reservoir, permeability data of fractures of a hydrocarbon reservoir, and a Hoek-Brown failure criterion parameter that is calculated based on a geological strength index and a disturbance factor of the rock formation;
displaying, by the GUI, the determined safe mudweight window.

14. The device of claim 13 , wherein displaying the determined safe mudweight window comprises displaying a first curve representing critical collapse mudweight (CMW) and a second curve representing fracturing mudweight (FMW).

15. The device of claim 13 , wherein displaying the determined safe mudweight window comprises displaying the determined safe mudweight window at a plurality of depths.

16. The device of claim 13 , wherein the list of tasks further include a stress curve task, a stress color map task, a failure potential curve task, a failure region task, or a polar chart task.

17. The device of claim 13 , wherein the safe mudweight window is determined further based on well trajectory data of the rock formation.

18. The device of claim 13 , wherein the safe mudweight window is determined further based on elastic properties data of the rock formation.

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co

Inventors

• Han Yanhui
• Abousleiman Younane N
• Liu Chao
• Rimassa Shawn

Classifications

• E21B49/00 Primary

  Testing the nature of borehole walls; Formation testing; Methods or apparatus for obtaining samples of soil or well fluids, specially adapted to earth drilling or wells · CPC title

• E21B49/006

  Measuring wall stresses in the borehole · CPC title

• G01V2210/6242

  Elastic parameters, e.g. Young, Lamé or Poisson · CPC title

• G01V1/282

  Application of seismic models, synthetic seismograms · CPC title

• G06F2111/20

  Configuration CAD, e.g. designing by assembling or positioning modules selected from libraries of predesigned modules · CPC title