The impact of sidetracking on the wellbore stability

In the past sidetracking was the means to bypass a damaged zone or to correct the direction of a wellbore. Nowadays, this method is very common and useful in relocating the bottom of a wellbore in a more productive zone and consequently enhancing the production of a reservoir by saving a significant amount of time and money. In this paper, the stability of the bend area is assessed considering varied conditions of stress regime and sidetrack orientation. In general, the stress regime and the orientation of the principal stresses have negligible effect on the stability of the sidetrack compared to sidetrack inclination. On the other hand, the sidetrack deviation angle from the vertical main well plays the major role in the stability of the bend area.