Permian Basin: Use of In-Situ Mechanical Rock Properties Improves Completions

Optimizing horizontal well placement is not limited to identifying the most-favorable reservoir, but also involves identifying the ideal target window within that reservoir. Gathering drill-bit geomechanics data provides a lower-cost and lower-risk method to acquire mechanical rock properties in long horizontal wellbores. By integrating data sets with mechanical rock properties recorded while drilling, operators can have significantly higher confidence in choosing a target landing zone and improving completions. The complete paper presents two detailed case studies from the Permian Basin.

Introduction

In this paper, the authors combine the characterization of petrophysical and geomechanical properties into what they call a petromechanical work flow.