Several wellbore instability problems have been encountered during drilling a shale formation in an offshore field, leading to the collapse of the main borehole and resulting in several sidetracks. In this study, an integrated 1D & 3D Geomechanical model was built for the field in order to investigate the major factors that control the instability problems from a Geomechanical point of view and to design an optimum mud window for planned wells in the field. Effect of bedding on wellbore stability was the most important factor to explain the observed drilling events.
Optimized well paths for planned wells were proposed based on results of a sensitivity analysis of the effect of bedding orientation on wellbore stability. It has been observed that bedding exposed depends not only on well inclination but also on dip of the formation, attack angle, and azimuth.
