Stress Analysis in Boreholes Drag Bh and Leknes Bh, Nordland, North Norway

Abstract

Nordland in northern Norway is characterized by enhanced seismicity and uplift that makes it the most tectonically active area in Norway. This study is part of a project entitled Neotectonics in Norway—Implications for Petroleum Exploration, which aims at enhancing the understanding of regional-scale stress and strain dynamics in Nordland, and to impact risk and hazard assessment and petroleum exploration. This paper attempts to constrain the orientation of in situ horizontal stress using high-resolution acoustic televiewer logging data. The Geological Survey of Norway has drilled two 0.8 km deep near-vertical boreholes on opposite sides of the Vestfjord in Nordland, the open bight of sea that separates the Lofoten archipelago from the Norwegian mainland. Both boreholes are drilled just North of 68°N, with borehole Leknes Bh located near the geographic center of the Lofoten archipelago, and borehole Drag Bh located on approximate equal distance from the shore, on the Norwegian mainland. The results of this study are in most practical aspects inconclusive, mainly due to poor data quality. The data analysis has revealed erroneously high-borehole diameter, and several artifacts such as eccentric logging tool, rugose borehole wall, spiral hole, tool sticking and missing data. Four intervals with passive in situ stress indicators (borehole breakout and drilling-induced fractures) were found in travel time and amplitude images of the Drag Bh, suggesting approximately N–S orientation of maximum horizontal stress. However, these intervals are not found in cross-plots. Either result yields the lowest World Stress Map ranking quality (E).