Case Study: North Malay Well Operating Company achieves accurate fracture gradient and mud-weight planning with SLB Sonic Scanner

Calibrating Fracture Gradient with Acoustic Radial Profiling Where Leakoff and Minifrac Tests Unavailable

SLB helped North Malay Well Operating Company address major uncertainty in shallow overburden stress and fracture gradient while planning two appraisal wells in the North Malay basin, Malaysia. Because leakoff and minifrac tests did not provide reliable calibration data for the mechanical earth model, the company could not confidently determine the safe mud-weight window or casing point needed to reach deeper overpressured reservoirs.

SLB used the Sonic Scanner acoustic scanning platform to measure sonic properties at multiple depths of investigation and combine near-wellbore and far-field radial profiles with a nonlinear elastic wellbore stress model. This allowed the team to estimate horizontal stress magnitudes and stress regime, recalibrate the fracture initiation pressure to 5,500 psi, and improve wellbore stability and drilling design. The calibrated model provided more accurate mud weights for different hole sections and offset locations, increasing confidence in reaching the deeper targets.