4D Geomechanical Simulation in Fractured Carbonate Reservoir for Optimum Well Construction and Reservoir Management, Case Study in Offshore East Java Area

Abstract

Ujung Pangkah Field which located at offshore East Java Indonesia, is known for its challenging nature from geological, reservoir and drilling perspectives. Drilling experiences in this area shows severe wellbore instability in overburden shale and in fractured carbonate reservoir. Hydrocarbon production directly exacerbate drilling problems and production issues that were not expected came earlier than predicted, for example early water breakthrough. At least two or three operators facing similar severe wellbore instability problems in the area. Due to the complexity of subsurface systems and coupled interactions between depletion and stresses, the present-day stress state in Ujung Pangkah Field which have undergone production will be different from the pre-production stress state. Therefore, a comprehensive analysis will require numerical modelling involving coupling of 3D geomechanical model with fluid flow during production operations from dynamic model. Present-day stress state is subsequently used for wellbore stability analysis of planned development wells in Ujung Pangkah Field. Investigation of the behavior of natural fractured reservoir during depletion and its impact to reservoir management is also attempted. Two-way coupling of geomechanic and dynamic models were conducted whereby porosity and permeability update due to production were simulated based on uniaxial pore volume compressibility tests. Hence, porosity and permeability of fractures are not considered static anymore but dynamic due to stresses changes and production. The result of coupled simulation is able to reduce wellbore instabilities significantly in the planned well. The stable mud weight windows for planned wells are extracted from the model. The stable mud weight window in the reservoir interval is narrow to no stable drilling window in all the planned wells due to depletion. In general, the preferred direction to drill, requiring lowest mud weights, is in the direction of minimum horizontal stress which in this case is Northwest-Southeast (NW-SE). However, it was found that azimuthal dependency of mud weight is insignificant due to low horizontal stress anisotropy. Reservoir compaction and sea-bed subsidence were also calculated using the outputs from the model. The result is useful for completion and platform integrity.