Systems and methods for well placement in stable in-situ stress for horizonal drilling

A system for drilling a target wellbore in a hydrocarbon bearing (HCB) formation, the system comprising:

• one or more processors configured to perform operations comprising:
• selecting a plurality of offset wells in proximity of a location of the target wellbore, wherein the plurality of offset wells comprise at least three offset wells that are in different directions within a distance from the location predicted for the target wellbore;
• for each offset well of the plurality of offset wells:
• generating a porosity and in-situ stress profile for a first sub-formation of the HCB formation;
• and
• selecting, based on the porosity and in-situ stress profile, stable-stress window in the first sub-formation;
• integrating the stable-stress windows from the plurality of offset wells with seismic data associated with the first sub-formation to generate integrated data;
• generating, based on the integrated data, a three-dimensional (3D) stress stable horizon in the first sub-formation;
• generating, based on the 3D stress stable horizon, a drilling trajectory for a drilling operation in the first sub-formation;
• and
• during the drilling operation, controlling a drilling system to drill according to the drilling trajectory to create the target wellbore.

A non-transitory computer storage medium encoded with instructions that, when executed by one or more computers, cause the one or more computers to perform operations for drilling a target wellbore in a hydrocarbon bearing (HCB) formation, the operations comprising:

• selecting a plurality of offset wells in proximity of a location of the target wellbore, wherein the plurality of offset wells comprise at least three offset wells that are in different directions within a distance from the location predicted for the target wellbore;
• for each offset well of the plurality of offset wells:
• generating a porosity and in-situ stress profile for a first sub-formation of the HCB formation;
• and
• selecting, based on the porosity and in-situ stress profile, stable-stress window in the first sub-formation;
• integrating the stable-stress windows from the plurality of offset wells with seismic data associated with the first sub-formation to generate integrated data;
• generating, based on the integrated data, a three-dimensional (3D) stress stable horizon in the first sub-formation;
• generating, based on the 3D stress stable horizon, a drilling trajectory for a drilling operation in the first sub-formation;
• and
• during the drilling operation, controlling a drilling system to drill according to the drilling trajectory to create the target wellbore.