1. PROJECT TITLE WELLBORE STABILITY: Analysis of Deformation in deviated well using an optimized and validated 3-D FEM approach.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW It has been found that loss of wellbore stability is one of the major sources of downtime in drilling, thereby, causing nearly $8 billion in world-wide losses each year. Apart from this, the completion and production phases of the well also exhibit wellbore stability problems. [1] Lately, there has been many a scientific and technical progress in the understanding of wellbore stability. The various causes of instabilities have been identified, mathematical models have been developed and numerous solutions have been proposed and often tried successfully in the field. Despite this scientific effort, extra drilling costs associated with wellbore instabilities remain very high. This only shows that all the previous efforts have somehow failed to reach final technical and economical objectives. [4] Wellbore instability can be encountered at any stage in the life of the well, including drilling, completion and simulation, flow tests, production, and depletion. This being one of the main causes of drilling difficulties, resulting in substantial expenditures, expensive loss of time, sometimes even in the loss of part or even the whole borehole. In weak rocks, the deformation, failure and flow processes are dominated by non-linear stressstrain responses, high fluid flow rates, and shearing accompanied with changing viscosity properties with pressure and time. Borehole stability issues in these formations have different characteristics, hence, various approaches and models are developed to cater all possibilities of failure. Many innovative technologies have been applied in the oil and gas industry, such as underbalanced drilling, high pressure jet drilling, re-entry horizontal wells, and multilateral from a single well which have definitely increased the demand for wellbore stability studies. Recently, technological advances have been pushing the reach of boreholes beyond 25,000 ft in length. [9] Highly inclined, extended-reach wellbores must remain open for prolonged time periods, not only during the drilling program but also over the life of a reservoir. Wellbore instability is a mechanical issue because instability is a function of stresses, strains and yield and physical agents. Therefore, the primary factors to be considered are strength, deformability, and loading which are affected by temperature, chemistry (ionic concentrations), pore pressures, mud weight and evolving properties. Mechanical responses to changing extrinsic factors requires proper coupling of stresses, strains, evolving state and yield behaviour to these factors through constitutive laws for the rocks surrounding the wellbore. Inclination and azimuthal orientation of a well with respect to the principal in-situ stresses can be an important factor affecting the risk of collapse and/or fracture breakdown occurring. This is the reason for determining the fracture breakdown pressure in tectonically stressed regions where there is strong stress anisotropy. [8]

Stresses can only be measured at local points in space and determination of the state of stress in large rock masses is vastly affected by heterogeneities. There exist various numerical techniques to model heterogeneities in a rock mass, these methods and the general applicability have been discussed exhaustively in the literature by researchers. [5] Pore pressure is an important factor in the model as most failure criteria depend on effective stress. [7] It has been analysed the distribution of stresses around circular openings have severe effects of weakness planes on them. The boundary element method was used to study borehole breakouts. [10] Studies on borehole breakouts in rock with anisotropic strength and local weakness have been performed by using a 2D finite element model in which the weakness planes are represented by elements with lower strength. It was noted that if the in situ stress ratio is close to unity, the presence of weakness planes does not greatly affect the development of a continuous, uniform yield zone, as predicted by analytical or numerical solutions for a homogeneous continuum. Researchers have used the discrete element method to investigate the effect of joint spacing on the size and shape of the distributed zone around circular openings. [11] Later it was noted that further experience is required in the application of the discrete element method to explore its potential and limitations. A review of modelling technology, wellbore stability, and drilling advances was given Ramos et aL (1996). The importance was laid in determining various characteristics using computation, modelling, monitoring, and logging tool developments. The availability of PC computers with numerical codes such as finite elements, finite differences, displacement discontinuity elements or boundary elements for wellbore stress-strain analyses have contributed to wider field applications and acceptance of rock mechanics models. A linear-elastic analysis is frequently proposed for the prediction determining the failure criterion and eventually the mud weights required to prevent hole instability. [3] Among these numerical methods, by using the Finite Element Method (FEM) it was found efficient to analyse the extremely complex issues of wellbore instability. The results achieved during drilling showed that the predictions of the FEM were significantly more accurate than the linear-elastic analysis. [2] The advantage of the FEM approach where the continuum is divided into small elements is that it is highly general, and any material law, spatiotemporally varying boundary condition, and transient process can in principle be solved in a fully coupled manner. In view of the above, the aim of this research is to use new method and theory in order to best describe the mechanical behaviour of wellbore and determine the state of stresses around the well-bore so as to optimize the mud weight for a deviated well.

3. OBJECTIVE OF STUDY In particular, the objectives of this research can be stated as: To analyse the mechanical behaviour and stability of the different direction wells. To device a suitable 3D model into a finite element code to analyse the effect of various stresses on wellbore stability in general. To present new analytical solutions and optimize the mud weight for a deviated well.

4. SCOPE OF STUDY To obtain better analysis and prediction of wellbore stability it is necessary to take a closer look at the parameters and conditions encountered during wellbore instability. Drilling in the formation will cause the stresses around the borehole to redistribute as well as changing other parameters. So studying the effects of the following factors is essential for the analysis. 1. 2. 3. 4. In-situ Stress Distribution Wellbore Pressure Thermal Effects Damages or ruptures in the formations

After computing the stresses at points around the circumference of the wellbore, by using suitable equations from various models, failure criterion must be then checked for. It is only then possible to determine at what mud weights failure is initiated.

4.1 Need for Mud Weight Optimization In general, wellbore instability is caused by a combination of different reasons or presence of more than one mechanisms of instability. Wells drilled in complex geological areas encounter many layers of rock having different properties. Some layers could be weak, brittle, ruptured, fractured or even chemically reactive. As we can see, there exists no simple solution for wellbore instability in such cases. A collapsing weak layer needs high mud weight for stability, but increasing the mud weight could excite instability in fractured layers by mud invasion. Therefore, such cases require careful study of parameters and mud weight optimization. [6] The objective of designing a proper mud weight is to drill a well successfully with minimum drilling problems. This objective can be achieved by avoiding the active mechanisms of instability in the field. The proper mud weight should be able to provide maximum wellbore wall support without exciting the instabilities due to differential sticking, mud invasion, or pore pressure penetration. If it is not possible to avoid any of the instability mechanisms, then its affect on instability should be minimized. [6] Thus, there lies great importance for mud weight optimization.

5. RESEARCH OUTPUT 1. FEM analysis results gives much improved predictions of hole stability. 2. Most accurate 3-D FEM Stress-Strain model and Failure Criterion is validated for a deviated well analysis. 3. Computations of safe mud weights. 4. With sufficient time results on Temperature effects on wellbore stability may be presented.

6. METHODOLOGY
Start

Study the different types of Wellbore instability

Understand the various factors influencing Wellbore stability

Data gathering through library research, online search, literature survey and journals.

Understanding of the previously developed 3-D FEM models

Select an optimized and validated 3-D FEM model to perform analysis

Prepare a fine Finite Element Mesh using Hypermesh or any other suitable pre-processing software

Using Ansys v14.0 or equivalent software to perform the analysis on the mesh

Determine the state of stresses around the wellbore using the above obtained model

Compliance with Failure Criterion

NO

YES

Optimize the mud weight for a deviated well and derive conclusion from the analysis

Establish further scope of research, based on the results

Stop

7. WORK SCHEDULE

SL. No 1 2 3

Activity 1 Exact Problem Definition Study of Related Topics Literature Review and Data Gathering Learning of various 3-D FEM Models Knowledge on using Hypermesh or equivalent software Knowledge on using Ansys or equivalent software Preparation of correct Mesh Perform Analysis using optimal 3-D model Validate the results Optimize the mud weight for deviated well from the results Deductions and discussions on the results Time for Writing Papers Preparation of Thesis Editing and Completion of final draft of Thesis 2 3 4 5

Expected Start and Finish Time of each activity (Month) 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

7 8

9 10

11

12 13 14

REFERENCES [1] Wellbore stability with consideration of pore pressure and drilling fluid interactions, J. Zhang, W. B. Standifird, K. Adesina and G. Keaney; Golden Rocks 2006, The 41st U.S. Symposium on Rock Mechanics (USRMS): "50 Years of Rock Mechanics - Landmarks and Future Challenges.", held in Golden, Colorado, June 17-21, 2006. [2] Wellbore Stability Analysis: A Review of Current Methods of Analysis and Their Field Application; M,R. McLean and M.A. Addis, BritishPetroleum, 1S90 IADCLSPE Drilling Conference held In Hou$lon, Texaa, February 27-March 2, 1SS0. [3] Wellbore Stability: The Effect of Strength Criteria on Mud Weight Recommendations M.R. McLean and M.A. Addis, British Petroleum, 65th Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition of the Society of Petroleum Engineers held in New Orleans, LA, September 2326,1990 [4] Wellbore-Stability Analysis Made Easy and Practical, F.J.Santarelli, SPE, S. Zaho, Giovanni Burratato, SPE, Fabrizio Zausa, SPE and Diego Giacca, SPE, Agip SpA [5] Applications of Stress Field Modelling using Distinct Element Method for Petroleum Production; Bronwyn A. Camac, SPE (Australian School of Petroleum University of Adelaide) and Suzanne P. Hunt (Australian School of Petroleum University of Adelaide) at SPE Asia Pacific Oil and Gas Conference and Exhibition Perth, Australia, 18-20, Oct 2004 [6] Analysis of wellbore instability in vertical, directional, and horizontal wells using field data M.A. Mohiuddin, K. Khan, A. Abdulraheem, A. Al-Majed, M.R. Awal; Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 55 (2007) 8392; Received 18 April 2005; accepted 26 April 2006 [7] Evaluation of Wellbore Stability during Drilling and Production of Open Hole Horizontal Wells in a Carbonate Field Authors: Dr. Hazim H. Abass, Mickey Warlick, Cesar H. Pardo, Mirajuddin R. Khan, Dr. Ashraf M. Al-Tahini, Dr. Dhafer A. Al-Shehri, Dr. Hameed H. AlBadairy, Yousef M. Al-Shobaili, Dr. Thomas Finkbeiner and Satya Perumalla [8] WELLBORE INSTABILITY: CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, Pierottijeva 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia [9] Ramos, G. G., Wilton, B. S. and Poliflo, A. F., 1996. Usage and applicability of pseudo-3D stress analysis in borehole stability problems in petroleum drilling and production operations. Rock Mechanics, Aubertin Hassani & Nfitri, Balkema, Rotterdam [10] Kwong, A. and Kaiser, P. K., 1991. Failure mechanisms of boreholes in rock with anisotropic strength and local weaknesses. Proc. 44h Canadian Geotechnical Conf, Calgary, Canada, Vol. 1 [11] Shen, B. and Barton, N., 1997. The distributed zone around tunnels in jointed rock masses. Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. & Geomech. A bstr. 34: 117-125