Wellbore Instability and Countermeasures in Offshore Bedding Shale Formations

The properties of bedding shales are different from that of normal formations. Strength anisotropy is their outstanding feature. Experimental study and theoretical analysis show that this kind of anisotropy of bedding shales is the main reason of wellbore instability. W-2nd section shales in WZ12-1N oilfield are in typical bedding formation, and there were some problems such as severe borehole collapse and pipe sticking in drilling. Bedding shale formation was assumed to be a transversely isotropic material, and a collapse pressure calculating method was established. The calculation result of directional drilling collapse pressure in W-2nd bedding shales shows that if hole deviation exceeds a certain critical value, collapse pressure will increase sharply. This result was used in mud density design and well trajectory optimization, which solved the wellbore instability problems of the W-2nd formation. This research method has reference value to solve problems of wellbore instability and improve drilling efficiency in other similar regions.