Course Overview

Day 1 – Fundamentals of Reservoir Geomechanics

• Principles of stress, strain, and elasticity
• Stress regimes and the concept of effective stress
• Rock strength and failure criteria (Mohr-Coulomb, Hoek-Brown)
• Importance of geomechanics in field development
• Exercise: Calculate stress profiles from log data

Day 2 – In-situ Stresses and Pore Pressure

• Determination of overburden, minimum and maximum horizontal stresses
• Methods for estimating pore pressure from logs and seismic
• Leak-off tests and extended leak-off tests (LOT/XLOT)
• Building 1D mechanical earth models (MEMs)
• Workshop: Construct a MEM from well data

Day 3 – Wellbore Stability and Drilling Geomechanics

• Causes of wellbore instability: breakouts, tensile fractures
• Mud weight window optimization
• Stress concentration around wellbores
• Drilling trajectories and their impact on stability
• Exercise: Predict stable mud weights for a planned wellbore

Day 4 – Fracture Mechanics and Sand Production

• Hydraulic fracturing design and modeling
• Fracture propagation in different stress regimes
• Prediction and control of sand production
• Geomechanical aspects of depleted reservoirs
• Workshop: Analyze frac gradient and sand failure risk

Day 5 – Geomechanics in Reservoir Management and Case Studies

• Geomechanical impacts on reservoir compaction and subsidence
• Integrating 3D geomechanical models with reservoir simulations
• Field case studies: wellbore instability, fracturing, sand management
• Designing geomechanics programs in field development plans
• Capstone Project: Develop a geomechanics-based strategy for a field case

Expected Learning Outcomes

• Understand stress and rock mechanical properties relevant to reservoirs
• Build mechanical earth models and calculate stress profiles
• Predict wellbore stability issues and optimize mud weights
• Analyze fracture mechanics and sand production risks
• Integrate geomechanical considerations into reservoir development plans