Impact of Salt Formation’s Geomechanical properties on the casing collapse event in oil wells using Numerical modeling

It is neccecery to use numerical methods in prediction the long-term behavior of structures with considering different conditions, because of presentation general and quick response of problems. Creep behavior of salt, as a time-dependent behavior, has always caused problems such as shear failure and convergence of oil wells casings. Thus, it is important to study of long-term behavior of these formations and the effect of creep behavior on well stability. In addition to time, salt layer thickness, stress distribution conditions and mechanical characteristic of salt rock are geomechanical factors which affecting on creep behavior of salt formations. Thus, in this paper, 3D numerical simulation using FLAC3D software is being performed to evaluate the effect of salt formation’s geomechanical properties (e.g. salt layer thickness, stress distribution and mechanical parameters of salt rock) on casing collapse of oil wells by considering data from one oil well in Kupal oilfield. For this purpose, at the first, Uniaxial creep test have been simulated similar to real conditions. Then by comparing between experimental and numerical results, constitutive model has been validated. Burgers creep model has been chosen as constitutive model for salt formation based on this validation. To be very close to real condition and also avoiding from simplifications as much as possible, Drilling rate, Drilling mud pressure, cement injection and casing installation have been considered in modeling. Then, three dimensional model has been solved for several period of time. Based on the results, stress distribution conditions have a major role in the creep behavior of salt formation among geomechanical properties. The effect of salt layer thickness on the amount of damage imposed to the casing is negligible. Also, studying the behavior of salt with different elastic modulus has shown that this parameter is an important factor to cause casing collapse of oil wells.