Patent ID: 8265915
Filing Date: 2012-09-11
Classification: E21B,G01V

Abstract:
1. A computer-implemented method for predicting well reliability in a three-dimensional geomechanical system, comprising: defining physical boundaries for the geomechanical system, wherein the geomechanical system comprises a hydrocarbon reservoir and a wellbore casing; acquiring history for at least one reservoir characteristic from multiple wells within the physical boundaries, wherein the at least one reservoir characteristic comprises pore pressure history; acquiring mechanical properties of rock formations and wellbore casing within the physical boundaries; creating a finite element mesh representing the geomechanical system, the mesh defining a plurality of nodes representing points in space, each point having potential displacement in more than one direction; mapping pore pressure within the geomechanical system at a first time for nodes within the mesh; mapping pore pressure within the geomechanical system at a plurality of additional times to correspond to the nodes within the mesh, wherein the mesh provides a positive value for any rock formations having a zero thickness as derived from subsurface data in order to create volume for each rock formation; running a geomechanical simulation for the geomechanical system to simulate the effects of changes in the at least one reservoir characteristic on stress in rock formations and wellbore casing within the physical boundaries to determine an effective strain (ε determining a critical effective strain criteria (ε comparing (1) the effective strain (ε