Applied Petroleum Geomechanics

Applied Petroleum Geomechanics provides a bridge between theory and practice as a daily use reference that contains direct industry applications. Going beyond the basic fundamentals of rock properties, this guide covers critical field and lab tests, along with interpretations from actual drilling operations and worldwide case studies, including abnormal formation pressures from many major petroleum basins. Rounding out with borehole stability solutions and the geomechanics surrounding hydraulic fracturing and unconventional reservoirs, this comprehensive resource gives petroleum engineers a much-needed guide on how to tackle today's advanced oil and gas operations.

Author Biography: Jon Zhang is a Geoscience Advisor in Geomechanics at Sinopec (Houston) with more than 29 years of world-wide industry and academic experience in geomechanics/rock mechanics, pore pressure prediction. He previously was a Senior Advisor at Hess, staff petrophysical engineer at Shell, and geomechanics manager at Halliburton (KSI). He has been an associate editor of Elsevier's Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering since 2010, a committee member of the American Rock Mechanics Association. He is a Foreign Member of Russian Academy of Natural Sciences. He was also a scientific/advisory board member for a number of international conferences and API (American Petroleum Institute) Recommended Practices Committee. Jon obtained his Ph.D. degree in Petroleum and Geological Engineering at the University of Oklahoma in 2002. He is an industry recognized geomechanics expert and has authored and coauthored over 100 technical papers and 3 books. Jon graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a PhD in Petroleum Engineering, a MS in graduate study at the China University of Geosciences, and a Bachelor of Applied Science from Hebei Engineering University.

Part I: Rock Properties and Rock Mechanics 1. Stresses and Strains 2. Rock Properties and Rock Strengths 3. Rock Failure Criteria 4. Basic Rock Fracture Mechanics and Fracture Initiation Part II: In-situ Stress 5. In-situ Stress Regimes and Stress Polygon 6. In-situ Stress Estimate Part III: Pore Pressure and Fracture Gradient Predictions 7. Abnormal Pore Pressure Mechanisms 8. Pore Pressure Calculation and Prediction 9. Fracture Gradient Prediction Part IV: Wellbore Strengthening and Borehole Stability 10. Wellbore Strengthening 11. Borehole Stability Solutions and Mud Weight Design Part V: Hydraulic Fracturing and Reservoir Geomechanics 12. Geomechanics of Hydraulic Fracturing 13. Geomechanics for Unconventional Reservoirs 14. Sanding Prediction 15. Salt Creep and Casing Failure Analysis