A new simple method to estimate fracture pressure gradient
- Petrobras S.A., Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
- Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, LA (United States)
Projecting safer and more economic wells calls for estimating correctly the fracture pressure gradient. On the other hand, a poor prediction of the fracture pressure gradient may lead to serious accidents such as lost circulation followed by a kick. Although these kinds of accidents can occur in any phase of the well, drilling shallow formations can offer additional dangerous due to shallow gas kicks, because they have the potential of becoming a shallow gas blowout leading sometimes to the formation of craters. Often, one of the main problems when estimating the fracture pressure gradient is the lack of data. In fact, drilling engineers generally face situations where only leak off test data (frequently having questionable results) are available. This problem is normally the case when drilling shallow formations where very few information is collected. This paper presents a new method to estimate fracture pressure gradient. The proposed method has the advantage of (a) using only the knowledge of leak off test data and (b) being independent of the pore pressure. The method is based on a new concept called pseudo-overburden pressure, defined as the overburden pressure a formation would exhibit if it were plastic. The method was applied in several areas of the world such as US Gulf Coast (Mississippi Canyon and Green Canyon) with very good results.
- OSTI ID:
- 397972
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-941048-; TRN: IM9649%%180
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International petroleum conference and exhibition of Mexico: fractured reservoirs and deep water technology, Veracruz (Mexico), 10-13 Oct 1994; Other Information: PBD: 1994; Related Information: Is Part Of SPE international petroleum conference and exhibition of Mexico: Proceedings; PB: 708 p.
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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