Comparison and Verification of Electric-Log-Derived Rock Stresses and Rock Stresses Determined From the Mohr Failure Envelope

Abstract

Summary This paper evaluates the correlation between values of minimum principal in-situ stress derived from sonic logs and those obtained from triaxial core tests and coefficient for earth at rest correlations. The minimum principal in-situ stress is then compared to actual field mini-frac test data, which accurately determine the minimum principal in-situ stress and are used to verify the accuracy of the correlations. The cores and the mini-frac stress test were obtained from two wells, the Gas Research Inst.'s (GRI's) Staged Field Experiment (SFE) #1 well through the Travis Peak Formation in the East Texas Basin, and the U.S. Dept. of Energy's Multiwell Experiment (MWX) wells located west-southwest of the town of Rifle, Colorado, near the Rulison gas field. Results from this study indicate that of the two approaches used in obtaining the minimum principal in-situ stress, the normalized Mohr failure envelope approach is in better agreement with the measured stress values (from mini-frac tests) in sandstone, while the sonic log approach gives closer match in shale.