Critical Mud Weight and Risk Contour Plots for Designing Inclined Wells

Abstract

Abstract An analytical method, used as part of a study to develop an understanding of stress-induced wellbore instability in the North West Shelf of Australia, has been prepared as a suite of spreadsheets with macros to carry out drained and undrained stability analyses of inclined wells under a generalised plane strain condition. The contour plots of critical mud weight and failure extent produced by the spreadsheets can be used together with the mud weight stability profiles to select optimum wellbore alignment and to assist with mud weight and casing design.