Calculating horizontal stress

On the 1D MODEL > Horizontal Stress strip, JewelSuite Geomechanics provides you with three methods for calculating the horizontal stress. With the available tools in the strip, you can calculate the orientation of maximum horizontal stress, limits of the effective stress ratio, and calculate stiffness for the rock types.

Each method uses different inputs to characterize the horizontal stress, e.g. from log data, LOT, to core-derived acoustic anisotropies. The absolute magnitude of the horizontal stresses should be validated against borehole failure evidences, e.g. breakouts and/or hydraulically induced fractures observed on image logs. The magnitude of the horizontal stress can also be calibrated against drilling evidences, structural geology, MiniFrac or straddle packer MicroFrac testing.

The horizontal stress profile can be used to:

• Build the wellbore stability model and define the mud weight window,
• Identify stress contrast between reservoir layers and fracturing barriers,
• Design hydraulic fracture jobs in unconventional reservoirs,
• Select perforating intervals in vertical wells,
• Drill horizontal branches for multistage hydraulic fracturing