Patent ID: 11933168
Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC E  G | IPC E  G

Claim 0:
1. A method of forming a model of stress conditions in a stimulated reservoir volume in a region of interest of a subsurface reservoir formation for propagation of hydraulic fractures from an injection well in the region of interest of a subsurface reservoir for production of hydrocarbons from the subsurface reservoir, the method comprising the steps of:
providing mechanical properties and boundary conditions data of the subsurface reservoir to a data processing system;
processing the provided mechanical properties and boundary conditions data in the data processing system to form the model of stress conditions in the stimulated reservoir volume of the region of interest, the processing comprising:
forming a background geomechanical model of the region of interest, the background geomechanical model comprising a three dimensional grid of cells representing mechanical properties and boundary conditions over the extent of the region of interest in the subsurface reservoir formation, the background geomechanical model comprising stratigraphic layers, a perforated well, the mechanical properties, structural discontinuities, and a three dimensional state of stress defined in terms of a Cauchy stress tensor;
determining stress tensors for the individual grid cells of the formed background geomechanical model of the region of interest;
forming a stress perturbation model of the region of interest, the stress perturbation model comprising a plurality of faults and a plurality of folds that contribute to a stress pattern for a candidate location of the stimulated reservoir volume in the region of interest, wherein forming the stress perturbation model of the region of interest comprises determining a 3D stress perturbation of the stress perturbation model using elastic dislocation, the elastic dislocation comprising assigning each of the plurality of faults a dislocation, wherein the formed background geomechanical model is formed at a first geologic scale of 100 meters (m) to 100 kilometers (km), and the formed stress perturbation model is formed at a second geologic scale of 0.1 m to 1 m;
determining, using the formed stress perturbation model and a stress grid of the formed background geomechanical model, a measure of total stress at the candidate location for the stimulated reservoir volume in the region of interest, wherein determining, using the formed stress perturbation model and the stress grid of the formed background geomechanical model, a measure of total stress at the candidate location for the stimulated reservoir volume in the region of interest comprises using elastic superposition to combine perturbation stress from the formed stress perturbation model to the stress grid of the formed background geomechanical model, the elastic superposition comprising mapping the perturbation stress back onto the boundaries of the stress grid of the formed background geomechanical model;
forming a model of stimulated rock volume around the injection well for candidate location for the stimulated rock volume; and
determining three-dimensional stress conditions in a selected location for the stimulated rock volume model using the measure of total stress.