Mechanical Earth Modelling (MEM) and Well Design for High Pressure High Temperature Fields

Abstract

Conventional reservoirs are being depleted and attention has been given to more demanding conditions, like high pressure high temperature (HPHT) environments or under salt formations. There are, however, limited documents and regulations published on the integrity and design of drilling salt formations in HPHT in onshore and offshore fields. A salt formation that will be drilled under HPHT conditions, might face many operational, environmental, and geological difficulties that must be considered during the well planning stage. In this project all these challenges have been studies and an attempt to build a Mechanical Earth Modelling (MEM) that can provide useful information to safely drill salts in HPHT wells, has been made. To do this, literature has been reviewed and lessons learned from the previously limited case studies have been taken into consideration. A well located in Iran has been used as a case study.