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Technical Agenda
Monday
08:30–12:00
Session 1: Basin/Prospect-Scale Data and Modeling
Session Chairperson: Thomas Dewers, Sandia
Vice Chairperson: Mauro Bloch, Petrobras
Basin scale modeling is an often used tool for exploration and production planning but is a challenging multiscale and multidisciplinary task in which geomechanics plays an important role. This session focuses on the role of geomechanics on the basin scale, with the aim of improving understanding of large-scale reservoir characteristics over the production lifetime of fields. Emphasis is placed on pore pressure prediction, salt mechanics, fault geomechanics, compaction, influence of tectonics, and upscaling/downscaling between basin scale and wellbore scale.
13:00–16:30
Session 2: Overburden and Reservoir Boundary Effects
Session Chairperson: Rico Ramos, ConocoPhillips
Vice Chairperson: Leonid Germanovich,Georgia Institute of Technology
The reservoir’s bounding formations affect surface facilities, production efficiencies, ultimate resource recovery, operational efficiencies, IOR strategy, and environmental footprint. They are particularly important in geomechanical modeling of the reservoir as they represent the “container” in which and against which geomechanical forces react. This session will consider boundary factors such as: reservoir compaction vs. surface deformations, well uphole stability, strength-/stress-contrasts, stress-arching, fault reactivation, lateral-strain boundaries vs. pore-pressure boundaries vs. flow limits, integrity of seals and compartments, and how best to integrate all of this into geomechanical models of the reservoir.
Tuesday
08:30–12:00
Session 3: 4D Seismic and Geomechanics Interaction
Session Chairperson: Tony Addis, Shell
Vice Chairperson: Nick Koutsabeloulis, V.I.P.S.
One of the biggest unknowns using geomechanics in E&P is the validation of the obtained solutions. Large uncertainties exist in the material required by the numerical modeling. Sonic logging tools, 4D seismic, and 3D seismic inversion provide information that could be used for the evaluation of the present-day rock fabric and/or the changes to that rock fabric with production time. The potential for the relationship between interpretations and forward geomechanical modeling to be used for validating geomechanical solutions will be analyzed.
18:00–21:30
Session 4: Data Acquisition and Interpretation
Session Chairperson: Dick Plumb, Schlumberger
Vice Chairperson: Dave Olgaard, ExxonMobil Upstream Research
One of the challenges of geomechanics modeling is the acquisition and integration of large amounts of data. The most predictive geomechanical models are internally consistent models that honor all available data, including seismic, geophysical logs, core data, drilling data, and production data. This session will address the challenges of integrating large volumes of multidisciplinary data sets, focusing on critical data, resolution models characterization, and improving uncertainty.
Wednesday
08:30–12:00
Session5: Geomechanical Impact of Reservoir Processes on Reservoir Properties and Production
Session Chairperson: Nick Koutsabeloulis, V.I.P.S.
Vice Chairperson: Dan Moos, GeoMechanics International
Production activities can cause significant changes in the reservoir, both in terms of rock properties and the state of stress. Depletion induces porosity and permeability changes; porosity reduction causes compaction, which can lead to stress changes that impact flow, and in many cases the reservoir reaches a critical failure state after which reinjection cannot reverse these effects. This session will address these and other issues related to the dynamics of the interaction between the geomechanical state of the reservoir and fluid flow-related fluid pressure (and temperature) changes due to production and injection, and attempt to answer the question of what specific geomechanical processes are missing and/or must be better modeled in next-generation reservoir simulators.
18:00–21:30
Session 6: Fractured Reservoirs and Unconventional Resources
Session Chairperson: Dan Moos, GeoMechanics International
Vice Chairperson: Thomas Dewers, Sandia
Geomechanical analyses are only beginning to be applied to unconventional reservoirs such as fractured carbonates, tight gas reservoirs, coalbed methane, and shale. These analyses have mostly involved applying standard approaches with small changes to address differences between the behavior of the various unconventional and conventional reservoirs. However, the presence of fractures and faults can have profound effects on the response to changes in stress and fluid pressure and on relationships between physical and flow properties. This session will consider the applicability of geomechanics and innovations in methodology needed to model the behavior of these unconventional plays.
Thursday
08:30–12:00
Session 7: Impact of Temperature on Stress-Sensitive and Heavy Oil Reservoirs
Session Chairperson: Fersheed Mody, Shell International E&P
Vice Chairperson: Terry Stone, Schlumberger
Conventional reservoir simulation of thermal recovery process in unconventional resources (heavy oil, bituminous oil sands, oil shale, etc.) does not explicitly incorporate geomechanics. However, implicit coupling, traditionally modeled through history matches and predictions, has been successfully conducted without geomechanics. While the implicit use of geomechanics may work for some unconventional resource reservoirs, this methodology cannot necessarily be extrapolated to other reservoirs with different operating conditions. This session will discuss and debate the challenges and importance of geomechanics/reservoir coupling in the thermal recovery of unconventional resources.
13:00–16:30
Session 8: Value of Geomechanics in the Life Cycle of a Reservoir
Session Chairperson: John McLennan, University of Utah
Vice Chairperson: Fersheed Mody, Shell International E&P
This session will focus on using geomechanics throughout the life cycle of a reservoir—moving chronologically from exploration, appraisal, development, production, and then abandonment. The key focus will be the potential value of geomechanics for field optimization. Issues related to various stages of field development that can be better understood by considering geomechanics include: pore pressure, fault seal, wellbore stability, injection, stimulation and completion, compaction, depletion, subsidence, and finally production management.
Friday
08:30–12:00
Session 9: Injection Geomechanics/Wrap-Up
Session Chairperson: Mike Bruno, TerraLog
Vice Chairperson: Leonid Germanovich, Georgia Institute of Technology
Depleted oil and gas formations, and even saline aquifers, are being used with increasing frequency as storage zones for natural gas, waste, and most recently, for CO2 sequestration. This session will focus on the geomechanics issues associated with injection operations for CO2 sequestration, gas storage, and waste disposal. Large-scale injection into saline aquifers at pressure above hydrostatic can lead to bulk dilation of the formation, to induced shear stresses at the caprock interface, and to potential fault reactivation. Geomechanical processes, modeling approaches, field observations related to large-scale injection operations for storage and disposal, and what we can do to better integrate geomechanical and flow models of these processes will be analyzed.
Wrap-Up
Session Cochairpersons: David Yale, ExxonMobil; and Lisa Dell’Angelo, GeoMechanics International
In the final session of the meeting, we will review the highlights of the sessions with an aim towards identifying the gaps in our understanding and use of geomechanics at the reservoir scale and what issues the geomechanics/reservoir engineering/geoscience communities should focus in the next few years to improve reservoir performance prediction through the incorporation of geomechanics.
