Patent ID: 8567526

Claim:
A method of steering a drilling operation of a well using rock stress measurements, comprising: obtaining, during the drilling operation, well data from at least one logging while drilling tool in the well, wherein the well data comprises stress direction information; generating, using a central processing unit (CPU) and during the drilling operation, a well trajectory using survey data of the well obtained during the drilling operation from at least one monitoring while drilling tool in the well, wherein the well trajectory comprises a borehole azimuth; determining, using the CPU and during the drilling operation, an azimuth of minimum horizontal stress using the well data; comparing, using the CPU and during the drilling operation, the azimuth of minimum horizontal stress to the borehole azimuth to determine that an initial directional criteria is not satisfied, wherein the initial directional criteria specifies, based on a first current objective of the drilling operation, a first relation between the borehole azimuth and the azimuth of minimum horizontal stress; in response to determining that the initial directional criteria is not satisfied, generating an updated well trajectory that satisfies the initial directional criteria during the drilling operation; adjusting the drilling operation using the updated well trajectory; updating, while drilling the well, the initial directional criteria to an updated directional criteria based on a second current objective of the drilling operation, wherein the updated directional criteria specifies, based on the second current objective of the drilling operation, a second relation between the borehole azimuth and the azimuth of minimum horizontal stress; and continuing drilling the well in accordance with the updated directional criteria.