Automation in Real-Time Wellbore Stability Modeling

Wellbore stability problems increase non-productive time and cause safety risks. Early detection of relevant wellbore stability issues is important. The continuous improvement of drilling and measuring technologies has resulted in a greater volume of high-quality data being available in real-time. The technological advance enables the application of more comprehensive geomechanical models in real-time. The advancing development of remote operational centers further creates new possibilities for real-time geomechanical modeling. The large amount of data, and the great complexity of the models, requires at least partial automation of the geomechanical workflow. Moreover, automation ensures a standardization of the modeling process and increases objectivity by reducing the amount of manual processing and human interpretation. This is important in a real-time analysis when a project is shared by several analysts who work on shifts or when several experts share the analysis (such as in remote operations).