An Overview on the Quantification of Geomechanical Risks at Petroleum Development Oman

Geomechanics has become more and more important in the last decade due to an increase of geomechanical risks, the production of hydrocarbons in structurally more complicated fields, and pushing recovery techniques to the limits. This paper gives an overview of how geomechanics is used in Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) for de-risking drilling and field operations while also some business opportunities will be highlighted. The focus is mainly on geomechanical risks that can be quantified via quick screening tools and sophisticated models. The latter will only be used if the risks from the quick screening tools are too high. In the current business climate there is a strong push of doing more studies with fewer resources, while the standards of operational safety need to be maintained. This is an enormous challenge where balance needs to be found between doing quick screening and in-depth studies. The paper discusses some of these methods and tools as used by PDO.