Research on transversely isotropic in-situ stress logging prediction of transitional shale reservoir: a case study of Daji Block, Eastern Ordos Basin, North China

Abstract

Reservoir in-situ stress is crucial in oil and gas exploration and development. With the transitional shale as the research object, the ultrasonic transmission test and uniaxial compression test of rock samples from different sampling angles were performed. Further, the transversely isotropic in-situ stress logging calculation method for transitional shale reservoirs was established based on the transversely isotropic constitutive relationship. Finally, the in-situ stress profile of the transitional shale reservoir in the study area was analyzed, and the reliability of the results was verified. The results indicated that the mechanical characteristics of rock and its acoustic velocity varied significantly depending on the sample angle, with some regularity in the changes between vertical and horizontal mechanical properties. The logging profile revealed that the transverse Young modulus was greater than the vertical, and the vertical Poisson’s ratio was typically greater than the transverse. The suggested transversely isotropic model performed better than the conventional in-situ stress model at predicting the in-situ stress of transitional shale reservoirs, with an error of less than 2%. This demonstrated the applicability of the model’s in-situ stress calculation of the transitional shale reservoir.