Development of inversion study on in-situ stress field in petroleum engineering

In the petroleum exploration and exploitation, research about in-situ stress is extensive. But for the little information included in the measured parameters, the results often have a large deviation from practice if finite-element method (FEM) numerical simulation is used directly. This becomes the bottle-neck for the theoretical analysis and numerical simulation of the in-situ stress. So the inversion theory was introduced to study in-situ stress in deep and complex formation, and a review of the development and application of inversion study on in-situ stress in oil and gas well engineering was also described in detail. Based on the integration of geotechnical engineering inversion theory and FEM numerical simulation, bottle-neck will be broken through in the accurate location of the exploration well and the exploitation well as well as the mechanism study of casing failure. Finally, the key technique in the study was presented in the paper, which will promote the application and development of the in-situ stress inversion theory in the deep formation in petroleum engineering.