Estimation of Pore Pressure and Fracture Gradient in Volve Field, Norwegian North Sea

Abstract

Maintaining a stable borehole and optimizing drilling are still considered to be vital practice for the success of any hydrocarbon field development and planning. The present study deliberates a case study on the estimation of pore pressure and fracture gradient for the recently decommissioned Volve oil field at the North Sea. High resolution geophysical logs drilled through the reservoir formation of the studied field have been used to estimate the overburden, pore pressure, and fracture pressure. The well-known Eaton’s method and Matthews-Kelly’s tools were used for the estimation of pore pressure and fracture gradient, respectively. Estimated outputs were calibrated and validated with the available direct downhole measurements (formation pressure measurements, LOT/FIT). Further, shear failure gradient has been calculated using Mohr-Coulomb rock failure criterion to understand the wellbore stability issues in the studied field. Largely, the pore pressure in the reservoir formation is hydrostatic in nature, except the lower Cretaceous to upper Jurassic shales, which were found to be associated with mild overpressure regimes. This study is an attempt to assess the in-situ stress system of the Volve field if CO2 is injected for geological storage in near future.