Taming Complexities of Coupled Geomechanics in Rock Testing: From Assessing Reservoir Compaction to Analyzing Stability of Expandable Sand Screens and Solid Tubulars

Abstract

Summary Well geomechanics and "smart" completion designs in many of Saudi Aramco's fields are essential in supporting the company's efforts to apply the extended-reach and MRC well technologies. MRC wells are being aggressively targeted to optimize development economics, enhance recovery, maximize production, minimize differential drawdown across the sand face, reduce sanding potential, and defer water coning. In addition, many unconsolidated sandstone reservoirs require positive sand-control measures. As such, Expandable Sand Screen (ESS) tubulars have seen a recent surge in applicability for completing conventional and MRC wells in sand-prone, troublesome formations. Today, solid expandable tubulars are being tested on a number of wells in a pseudomonodiameter structure. Though attractive, the long-term performance of these tools in the Arabian Reservoir environments is yet to be explored. This paper simulates the impact of reservoir production and depletion on expandable tubulars and sand-screen completions when the compacting reservoir behaves as a permeable poroelastic medium. A general poroelastic solution model encompassing a multitude of boundary and initial conditions is discussed in this paper. The model simulates the uniaxial (Ko) testing of solid and hollow geomaterial cylinders (Geertsma 2005). Thus, it helps infer about potential problems that might influence the survivability of "expandables" and disrupt the outflow from the well. The proof cases on reservoir and caprocks presented herein are supported with numerical application, experimental validation, and physical interpretation of the coupled poromechanical processes that are reflected in the anisotropic, time-dependent rock responses during testing. The manuscript also demonstrates that this enhanced approach to modeling visualization will ultimately ease the tractability of the pertinent physical phenomena as well as support the model's computational credibility to engineers and experimentalists in the oil and gas industry.