Determination of optimal well trajectory during drilling and production based on borehole stability

Several studies have been done about borehole stability and optimized wellbore direction. However, the majority of them focused on stability during drilling, and there are only a few studies concerns with stability during drilling and production and its problems such as sanding simultaneously. This paper presents an analytical model that estimates collapse pressure in stability analysis during drilling and in addition determines maximum drawdown pressure to prevent sand production, using the Mogi–Coulomb failure criterion. The results show that in different in-situ stress regimes, the inclination and azimuth have a significant role in wellbore stability during both drilling and production. Furthermore, the results show that the optimum direction for wellbore stability during drilling is also the best direction for stability of a production well. The analytical model is applied to field data in order to verify the applicability of the developed model.

► New analytical model to analyze wellbore stability during drilling and production. ► Sand production potential was evaluated by Mogi–Coulomb failure criterion. ► Optimal well trajectory in production condition is same as drilling condition. ► New model was verified by two different case studies.