Determination of Mechanofacies in Carbonate Reservoirs for the Purpose of Mechanical Characterization

With the aim to pursuit an improvement in the guidelines definition for rocks mechanical characterization, which can be easily incorporated to the geomechanical studies, such as reservoir modeling and well stability analysis, the development of this study was introduced. Following this approach, Petrobras began a research focusing on the geological aspects along with the mechanical parameters, adopting the concept of mechanofacies (facies defined from a series of mechanical parameters correlated with geological features). This paper focuses on the application of mechanofacies for mechanical characterization of carbonate reservoir sampled by well coring. During the studies, the scratch test was performed to improve the mechanical characterization of the reservoir, acknowledging the concept of mechanofacies. Through the accomplishment of a case study, the UCS log showed good correlation with geological aspects, compressional transit time and petrophysical parameters. The scratch test revealed to be useful in the mechanofacies analysis for being able to capture the heterogeneity in centimeter scale. The CPM equation was adequate for the estimation of UCS in carbonates of the well A, managing to capture the heterogeneity observed by interbedded facies, although, further applications are still required for validations. The properties/parameters of the facies that were obtained, will be applied to assess the demand of additional mechanical tests, with the goal of an improvement of the reservoir mechanical characterization.