Abstract: Gas drilling technology has the advantages of high rate of penetration and low drilling cost; however, wellbore instability frequently occurs due to the lack of drilling fluid support. Compaction drilling technology, which is characterized by good borehole stability, has been widely applied in fields such as horizontal directional drilling. To address the wellbore instability problem encountered in gas drilling, a compaction-based wellbore strengthening technology was proposed by integrating gas drilling and compaction drilling technologies. The principle of the proposed technology was analyzed, and laboratory experiments together with corresponding discrete element simulations were conducted to investigate the loads required under different compaction amounts. The reliability of the discrete element simulation was verified through comparison of the axial forces obtained from experiments and simulations. Furthermore, discrete element simulation was employed to study the compaction process in clay, and the evolution characteristics of porosity and particle velocity were analyzed. The results indicate that the compaction process can effectively reduce wellbore porosity and improve the degree of wellbore compaction. It is concluded that the proposed gas drilling wellbore strengthening technology is technically feasible and exhibits a favorable wellbore strengthening effect in low-strength formations such as clay.