About this Virtual Instructor Led Training (VILT) 

The 8 half-day sessions provide a fundamental level of understanding of the geomechanical factors that affect wellbore instability and the prediction and management of abnormal pore pressures. This Virtual Instructor Led Training (VILT) is structured such that upon completion, participants will have understood the value that geomechanics can bring to the design of well construction and completion operations and will be able to leverage this value wherever it applies. The VILT course emphasis will be on integrating the topics presented through a combination of lectures, case-studies and hands-on exercises. A special focus will be on how geomechanics knowledge is extracted from routinely acquired well data and how it is applied in the prediction and prevention of formation instability. The VILT is essentially non-mathematical and makes wide use of diagrams, pictures and exercises to illustrate the essential concepts of geomechanics:

1. Essential pore pressure and rock mechanics principles
2. Mechanical core testing
3. Abnormal pressure mechanisms – subcompaction, fluid expansion and buoyancy
4. Pore pressure measurement and overview of prediction techniques
5. Real-time over-pressure detection
6. Constructing a rock mechanical earth model
7. Predicting and managing wellbore instability
8. Life-of-field considerations – effects on fracture gradients
9. Optimising drilling performance
10. Salt geomechanics
11. Avoiding lost circulation and designing wellbore strengthening techniques