A supplement to a study of the design of inclined wellbores with regard to both mechanical stability and fracture intersection.

Abstract

In this supplement, it is shown that, by recognizing the need to avoid hydraulically induced horizontal fractures, the predicted upper bound mud weights for mechanical stability of inclined wellbores are lower than our previous predictions (Zhou et al., 1994), and more realistic. The key conclusion remains that the mechanical stability of inclined wellbores can be improved if they are drilled with an optimum drilling direction and deviation angle.