Several sand-control completions in the initial development of a Gulf of Mexico, (GOM) deepwater turbidite field failed prematurely when placed on production. After an extensive multidisciplinary review of completion designs and procedures, the cause of these completion fad ures was determined to be an inverted sand/shale stress contrast-that is, shales with lower minimum horizontal stress than adjoining sand layers. Frac-pack-completion design was modified to incorporate perforation standoff from adjacent shales and use smaller pad volumes.