Integrated reservoir optimization

• US 20050149307A1
• Filed: 03/02/2005
• Published: 07/07/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/22/2000
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schlumberger Technology Corporation (Schlumberger NV)
• Original Assignee: Schlumberger Technology Corporation (Schlumberger NV)
• Inventors: Rossi, David J., Pantella, Philip W., Gurpinar, Omer M., Verma, Vidya B.
• Granted Patent: US 7,478,024 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/10
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 43/00 Methods or apparatus for obtaining oil, gas, water, soluble or meltable materials or a slurry of minerals from wells applicable only to water E03B
• CPC Class Codes: E21B 49/00 Testing the nature of borehole walls; Formation testing; Methods or apparatus for obtaining samples of soil or well fluids, specially adapted to earth drilling or wells
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 11/00 Prospecting or detecting by methods combining techniques covered by two or more of main groups G01V1/00 - G01V9/00
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 2210/612 Previously recorded data, e.g. time-lapse or 4D
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/84 Greenhouse gas [GHG] management systems

Abstract

A method of managing a fluid or gas reservoir is disclosed which assimilates diverse data having different acquisition time scales and spatial scales of coverage for iteratively producing a reservoir development plan that is used for optimizing an overall performance of a reservoir. The method includes: (a) generating an initial reservoir characterization, (b) from the initial reservoir characterization, generating an initial reservoir development plan, (c) when the reservoir development plan is generated, incrementally advancing and generating a capital spending program, (d) when the capital spending program is generated, monitoring a performance of the reservoir by acquiring high rate monitor data from a first set of data measurements taken in the reservoir and using the high rate monitor data to perform well-regional and field-reservoir evaluations, (e) further monitoring the performance of the reservoir by acquiring low rate monitor data from a second set of data measurements taken in the reservoir, (f) assimilating together the high rate monitor data and the low rate monitor data, (g) from the high rate monitor data and the low rate monitor data, determining when it is necessary to update the initial reservoir development plan to produce a newly updated reservoir development plan, (h) when necessary, updating the initial reservoir development plan to produce the newly updated reservoir development plan, and (i) when the newly updated reservoir development plan is produced, repeating steps (c) through (h). A detailed disclosure is provided herein relating to the step (a) for generating the initial reservoir characterization and the step (b) for generating the initial reservoir development plan.

Claims

1-42. -42. (canceled)

43. A method of generating a simulator production and reserves forecast, a mechanism representing a process that is active in a reservoir being chosen in response to a first development plan adapted for developing a reservoir, comprising the step of:

(a) in response to a history calibrated model and a set of constraints, running a simulator production and reserves forecast model and, responsive thereto, generating a simulator production and reserves forecast representing a manner by which said reservoir responds to said first development plan.

44. The method of claim 43, further comprising the steps of:

(b) determining if said mechanism can be optimized;

(c) making changes to an implementation plan or said set of constraints on the condition that said mechanism can be optimized; and

(d) in response to the making step (c), repeating the running and generating step (a) adapted for generating additional simulator production and reserves forecasts until said mechanism cannot be further optimized.

45. The method of claim 44, further comprising the steps of:

(e) in response to the repeating step (d), determining if an alternate mechanism exists where said alternate mechanism represents an alternate process that is active in said reservoir in response to a second development plan for said reservoir;

(f) revising the implementation plan for said second development plan on the condition that said alternate mechanism exists; and

(g) in response to the revising step (f), repeating the running step (a) adapted for running said model and the generating step (a) adapted for generating additional simulator production and reserves forecasts until said alternate mechanism cannot be further optimized and no additional alternate mechanisms exist.

46. The method of claim 45, further comprising the steps of:

(h) in response to the repeating step (g), determining if any parametric sensitivity runs are needed representing any changes to a set of uncertainty parameters;

(i) making changes to said history calibrated model to take into account said changes in said set of uncertainty parameters; and

(j) in response to the making step (i), repeating the running step (a) adapted for running said model and the generating step (a) adapted for generating additional simulator production and reserves forecasts until said alternate mechanism cannot be further optimized and no additional alternate mechanisms exist and no additional parametric sensitivity runs are needed.

47. The method of claim 46, further comprising the step of:

(k) in response to the repeating step (j), determining if any facilities requirements need to be changed on the condition that said set of constraints is changed.

48. The method of claim 47, wherein said set of constraints is selected from a group consisting of:

production objectives, sales and transport constraints, rig and equipment availability, injectant constraints, processing constraints, well capacity constraints, and proposed plan of development.

49. A method of generating an analytical production and reserves forecast, a mechanism representing a process that is active in a reservoir being chosen in response to a first development plan adapted for developing a reservoir, comprising the step of:

(a) in response to a first forecast and a second forecast and a third forecast and a set of constraints, running an analytical production and reserves forecast model and, responsive thereto, generating an analytical production and reserves forecast representing a manner by which said reservoir responds to said first development plan.

50. The method of claim 49, further comprising the steps of:

(b) determining if said mechanism can be optimized;

(c) making changes to an implementation plan or said set of constraints on the condition that said mechanism can be optimized; and

(d) in response to the making step (c), repeating the running and generating step (a) adapted for generating additional analytical production and reserves forecasts until said mechanism cannot be further optimized.

51. The method of claim 50, further comprising the steps of:

(e) in response to the repeating step (d), determining if an alternate mechanism exists where said alternate mechanism represents an alternate process that is active in said reservoir in response to a second development plan for said reservoir;

(f) revising the implementation plan for said second development plan on the condition that said alternate mechanism exists; and

(g) in response to the revising step (f), repeating the running step (a) adapted for running said model and the generating step (a) adapted for generating additional analytical production and reserves forecasts until said alternate mechanism cannot be further optimized and no additional alternate mechanisms exist.

52. The method of claim 51, further comprising the steps of:

(h) in response to the repeating step (g), determining if any parametric sensitivity runs are needed representing any changes to a set of uncertainty parameters;

(i) making changes to said first forecast or said second forecast or said third forecast to take into account said changes in said set of uncertainty parameters; and

(j) in response to the making step (i), repeating the running step (a) adapted for running said model and the generating step (a) adapted for generating additional analytical production and reserves forecasts until said alternate mechanism cannot be further optimized and no additional alternate mechanisms exist and no additional parametric sensitivity runs are needed.

53. The method of claim 52, further comprising the step of:

(k) in response to the repeating step (j), determining if any facilities requirements need to be changed on the condition that said set of constraints is changed.

54. The method of claim 52, wherein said set of constraints is selected from a group consisting of:

production objectives, sales and transport constraints, rig and equipment availability, injectant constraints, processing constraints, well capacity constraints, and proposed plan of development.

55. The method of claim 54, wherein said first forecast comprises current well forecasts of production and reserves.

56. The method of claim 55, wherein said second forecast comprises enhanced well production forecasts.

57. The method of claim 56, wherein said third forecast comprises infill forecasts of production and reserves.

58. The method of claim 57, further comprising the step of:

(k) in response to the repeating step (j), determining if any facilities requirements need to be changed on the condition that said set of constraints is changed.

59. A method of generating a production and reserves forecast, comprising the steps of:

(a) generating a simulator production and reserves forecast, a mechanism representing a process that is active in a reservoir being chosen in response to a first development plan adapted for developing a reservoir, the generating step (a) including the step of,

(a1) in response to a history calibrated model and a set of constraints, running a simulator production and reserves forecast model and, responsive thereto, generating a simulator production and reserves forecast representing a first manner by which said reservoir responds to said first development plan;

(b) generating an analytical production and reserves forecast, the generating step (b) including the step of,

(b1) in response to a first forecast and a second forecast and a third forecast and a set of constraints, running an analytical production and reserves forecast model and, responsive thereto, generating an analytical production and reserves forecast representing a second manner by which said reservoir responds to said first development plan.

60. The method of claim 59, wherein said set of constraints is selected from a group consisting of:

production objectives, sales and transport constraints, rig and equipment availability, injectant constraints, processing constraints, well capacity constraints, and proposed plan of development.

61. The method of claim 60, wherein said first forecast comprises current well forecasts of production and reserves.

62. The method of claim 61, wherein said second forecast comprises enhanced well production forecasts.

63. The method of claim 62, wherein said third forecast comprises infill forecasts of production and reserves.

64. The method of claim 59, wherein the generating step (a) further comprises the steps of:

(a2) determining if said mechanism can be optimized;

(a3) making changes to an implementation plan or said set of constraints on the condition that said mechanism can be optimized; and

(a4) in response to the making step (a3), repeating the running and generating step (a1) adapted for generating additional simulator production and reserves forecasts until said mechanism cannot be further optimized.

65. The method of claim 64, wherein the generating step (a) further comprises the steps of:

(a5) in response to the repeating step (a4), determining if an alternate mechanism exists where said alternate mechanism represents an alternate process that is active in said reservoir in response to a second development plan for said reservoir;

(a6) revising the implementation plan for said second development plan on the condition that said alternate mechanism exists; and

(a7) in response to the revising step (a6), repeating the running step (a1) adapted for running said model and the generating step (a1) adapted for generating additional simulator production and reserves forecasts until said alternate mechanism cannot be further optimized and no additional alternate mechanisms exist.

66. The method of claim 65, wherein the generating step (a) further comprises the steps of:

(a8) in response to the repeating step (a7), determining if any parametric sensitivity runs are needed representing any changes to a set of uncertainty parameters;

(a9) making changes to said history calibrated model to take into account said changes in said set of uncertainty parameters; and

(a10) in response to the making changes step (a9), repeating the running step (a1) adapted for running said model and the generating step (a1) adapted for generating additional simulator production and reserves forecasts until said alternate mechanism cannot be further optimized and no additional alternate mechanisms exist and no additional parametric sensitivity runs are needed.

67. The method of claim 66, wherein the generating step (a) further comprises the steps of:

(a11) in response to the repeating step (a10), determining if any facilities requirements need to be changed on the condition that said set of constraints is changed.

68. The method of claim 59, wherein the generating step (b) further comprises the steps of:

(b2) determining if said mechanism can be optimized;

(b3) making changes to an implementation plan or said set of constraints on the condition that said mechanism can be optimized; and

(b4) in response to the making changes step (b3), repeating the running and generating step (b1) adapted for generating additional analytical production and reserves forecasts until said mechanism cannot be further optimized.

69. The method of claim 68, wherein the generating step (b) further comprises the steps of:

(b5) in response to the repeating step (b4), determining if an alternate mechanism exists where said alternate mechanism represents an alternate process that is active in said reservoir in response to a second development plan for said reservoir;

(b6) revising the implementation plan for said second development plan on the condition that said alternate mechanism exists; and

(b7) in response to the revising step (b6), repeating the running step (b1) adapted for running said model and the generating step (b1) adapted for generating additional analytical production and reserves forecasts until said alternate mechanism cannot be further optimized and no additional alternate mechanisms exist.

70. The method of claim 69, wherein the generating step (b) further comprises the steps of:

(b8) in response to the repeating step (b7), determining if any parametric sensitivity runs are needed representing any changes to a set of uncertainty parameters;

(b9) making changes to said first forecast or said second forecast or said third forecast to take into account said changes in said set of uncertainty parameters; and

(b10) in response to the making changes step (b9), repeating the running step (b1) adapted for running said model and the generating step (b1) adapted for generating additional analytical production and reserves forecasts until said alternate mechanism cannot be further optimized and no additional alternate mechanisms exist and no additional parametric sensitivity runs are needed.

71. The method of claim 70, wherein the generating step (b) further comprises the steps of:

(b11) in response to the repeating step (b10), determining if any facilities requirements need to be changed on the condition that said set of constraints is changed.