Fault Characterization via Wellbore Breakout Modeling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for characterizing subterranean tectonic features near but not penetrated by a borehole are inefficient and costly, with remote sensing technologies offering limited success in identifying active faults, which is crucial for avoiding undesirable drilling events like wellbore breakouts.
Innovation Solution
A method that analyzes drilling-induced wellbore breakouts to infer the location, orientation, and presence of nearby faults by modeling the effects of fault-induced stress changes, without requiring the borehole to penetrate the fault, using wireline and real-time imaging data to constrain fault locations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If direct sampling techniques such as drilling boreholes are used to characterize subsurface features, then measurement precision is improved, but loss of substance and productivity deteriorate due to inefficiency and high cost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces direct mechanical drilling operations with a modeling-based approach that uses observed wellbore breakouts to infer fault characteristics. Instead of drilling additional boreholes to directly sample and characterize faults, the system uses mechanical observations (breakout patterns) combined with numerical modeling to achieve fault characterization, thereby eliminating the need for additional exploratory drilling and improving drilling efficiency.
2Productivity
If remote sensing imaging techniques are used to identify active faults, then productivity is improved by avoiding additional drilling, but measurement precision deteriorates due to limited success in identifying faults
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces wellbore breakouts as an intermediary indicator that mediates between direct fault observation and remote sensing limitations. Breakouts serve as indirect evidence of fault presence and characteristics, allowing the system to infer fault properties without direct fault penetration or reliance on limited remote sensing techniques, thereby improving both productivity and measurement precision.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces conventional remote sensing imaging techniques with a mechanical observation-based approach using wellbore breakouts. By substituting seismic or electrical imaging with analysis of mechanically-induced breakout patterns and their relationship to stress fields, the system achieves improved fault identification accuracy while maintaining high productivity.
3Measurement precision
If the borehole is designed to penetrate the fault for direct characterization, then measurement precision is improved, but device complexity and loss of time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional approach by not designing the borehole to penetrate the fault, but rather allowing the fault to manifest its influence on the borehole through breakout patterns. Instead of actively seeking fault penetration through complex trajectory design, the system passesively observes breakout characteristics that reveal fault properties, thereby simplifying borehole geometry while maintaining characterization accuracy.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach effectively characterizes faults in the vicinity of boreholes, reducing the risk of drilling-induced breakouts and improving reservoir characterization without the need for direct fault penetration, enhancing drilling efficiency and safety.
Implementation Method 1
faults that have been recently active will produce a secondary or localized stress perturbation that is superimposed upon the far-field tectonic stress field
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2A~2C
Figure 3A
AI summary
A method and system for characterization of fault conditions within a subterranean volume Means for generating a mathematical model of stress conditions within the volume, from which breakout conditions along a borehole trajectory can be predicted Means for sensing actual breakout conditions along a borehole extending through the volume Predictive breakout data and actual sensed breakout conditions are compared to assess the degree of correlation between the predictive data and the actual data Means are provided for enabling a user to cause the mathematical model to be revised to reflect the presence of at least one active fault plane in the volume, where the presumed fault plane is not intersected by the borehole which is used to generate new predictive breakout data Revising the stress model and assessing the correlation between predictive breakout conditions is repeatable achieving optimal correlation and accurate stress model reflecting fault conditions in the borehole vicinity.