Lithology-controlled stress variations of Longmaxi shale – Example of an appraisal wellbore in the Changning area

The Longmaxi shale is an extensive, prolific unconventional play in southwestern China. Its development in the Changning area is affected by ineffective hydraulic fracturing (HF) stimulation, fault reactivation and casing damage. It is suspected that the stress contrast within and between the shale reservoirs and the formations above and below matters to hydraulic fracture propagation and reservoir stimulation. To this end, the Longmaxi shale in the Changning area deserves a dedicated quantification of the in situ stress state and its variations. In this study, we re-visit the available data from one of the play’s first appraisal wellbores (X01) for an integrated geomechanics study, focusing on profiling the stress across the Longmaxi and its adjacent formations. Combining geophysical logs and other stress indicators, we re-interpret its stress profile in the context of lithological variations. The resulting stress variations are modeled primarily through a viscoplastic stress relaxation framework, compared with the results via the frictional equilibrium and an elastic theory (the Extended Eaton model). We offer some discussions on the differences and similarities of these stress profiling methods, and examine their applicability to Longmaxi shale in the Changning area. Our objective is to connect the lithology-controlled stress variations to the first-order complexities (HF ineffectiveness and fault reactivation) that have been observed in the area to date.