There are number of challenges in unconventional reservoir completions that will benefit from geomechanical considerations. Examples include complex hydraulic fracture development in naturally fractured reservoir, altered in situ stresses due to production, and reservoir re-stimulation, and coupled thermo-poro-mechanics processes.  Recognizing the critical need to understand fundamental mechanisms involved in unconventional reservoir development, the “Geomechanics for Unconventional Reservoir Fracturing; Basics to Field Application” one day course with focus on unconventional reservoir completions is offered.

The package offers:

1. Petroleum Geomechanics definition and its major goal
2. Introduction to complexities of well fracturing
3. Mechanics review
   • Stress and strain
   • Pore pressure
     • Effective stress

4. Rock behavior under stress
   • Elastic
     • Static behavior
     • Dynamic behavior
     • Anisotropy
   • Plastic
   • Failure
     • Shear failure
     • Compaction failure
   • Ductile-brittle prediction
5. Fracture mechanics
   • Griffith Crack and Stress Concentration
   • 3 Modes of Failure
     • Mode I
       • Analysis
       • Stress Pattern
       • Growth
     • Mode II & III
       • Analysis: Mohr-Coulomb failure
     • A hydraulic fracture failure model

6. Measurements and Calculations of Rock Mechanical Properties
   • Core Drilling, Selection and Preparation for Rock Mechanics Testing
   • Rock Mechanics Tests
     • Compressive strength test
       • (unconfined, triaxial, multi-stage)
     • Direct shear strength test (Shear Box )
     • Indirect tensile strength test
   • Index Tests for Rock Strength
   • Rock properties from log measurements
7. Pore Pressure Predictions
   • Pore pressure definition and prediction importance
   • Sources of pore pressure
   • Pore pressure estimation
8. In-situ Stress Measurements/Estimations
   • Importance of stress data
   • Geo-stress direction and magnitude
   • Methods to measure/estimate geo-stress
     • Vertical stress
     • Minimum horizontal stress
       • DFIT test
       • Estimation methods
     • Maximum horizontal stress
       • Fracturing tests (Mini-Frac, DFIT)
       • Drilling features (induced tensile fracture or breakouts)
       • Estimation based on frictional theory

9. Wellbore stress and stability
   • Introduction; Drilling Problems & Cost
     • Pipe Stuck and Lost Circulation
   • Methods to predict wellbore instability
     • Mathematical model (analytical and numerical methods)

10. Evaluation of Reservoir Fracturing
    • Hydraulic Fracturing Introduction
    • Hydraulic Fracturing Operation
      • Review: What we know (“for sure”) about hydraulic fracturing
      • Hydraulic Fracture Stimulation Operations
        • Design
        • Field Deployment
      • A Moment on the Traditional Analysis of Stimulation Response(s) and Microseismic Imaging
    • Physical Simulation to Understand Key Parameters that Controls Hydraulic Fracture Geometry
    • Hydraulic fracturing stage design based on integrated fracture potential
    • Hydraulic stimulation of discrete fracture network (DFN) reservoirs
    • Hydraulic fracture hit and infill well fracturing optimization