Systems and methods for planning well locations with dynamic production criteria

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10060245-B2
Application number	US-35175409-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2009
Priority date	Jan 9, 2009
Publication date	Aug 28, 2018
Grant date	Aug 28, 2018

Abstract

Systems and methods for automatically and optimally planning multiple well locations within a reservoir simulator. The systems and methods use dynamic production criteria to create and optimize well target completion intervals and the associated well geometries for new wells dynamically, and directly within a reservoir simulator.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for planning a well location, the method comprising:
defining, by a processing unit, coordinates for each well target in a plurality of well targets subject to a well target constraint and one or more sets of property filters, wherein the one or more sets of property filters includes a pore volume property filter value assigned to each grid element in a three-dimensional grid representing a geological model;
generating, by the processing unit, a subsurface well plan for the well location by:
connecting together well targets in the plurality of well targets that satisfy a subsurface well plan constraint, the subsurface well plan constraint comprising a well type constraint or a drilling cost constraint; and
discarding from the plurality of well targets at least one well target that does not satisfy the subsurface well plan constraint;

generating, by the processing unit, profile data for the subsurface well plan;
computing, by the processing unit, a well perforation based on the one or more sets of property filters;
generating, by the processing unit, simulation data by simulating production based on (i) the well perforation, (ii) the subsurface well plan, and (iii) the profile data;
computing, by the processing unit, an objective function for the well location based on simulation data to generate a computed objective function, wherein the objective function is usable to identify an optimal position of the well location based on an economic metric or a production metric;
determining, by the processing unit, whether one or more stopping criteria are met; and
drilling a well at the well location.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
for each respective well target in the plurality of well targets:
generating updated coordinates for the respective well target subject to a decision variable bound by using the computed objective function;
updating an on/off variable for a perforation interval containing the respective well target using the computed objective function; and
adding the updated coordinates for the respective well target to the coordinates for the respective well target or moving the respective well target to the updated coordinates;

computing a new subsurface well plan for the well location by:
connecting together well targets in the plurality of well targets that satisfy the subsurface well plan constraint; and
discarding from the plurality of well targets each well target that does not satisfy the subsurface well plan constraint;

computing new profile data for the new subsurface well plan;
computing a new well perforation based on the one or more sets of property filters;
generating new simulation data by simulating new production based on (i) the new well perforation, (ii) the new subsurface well plan, and (iii) the new profile data;
computing a new objective function based on the new simulation data; and
determining whether the one or more stopping criteria are met.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the coordinates for each well target are updated subject to the decision variable bound by using a best computed objective function according to a predetermined criterion; and
the on/off variable is updated using the best computed objective function.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the decision variable bound for the respective well target represents a predefined range for movement of the respective well target from an original location of the respective well target.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the coordinates for the respective well target are updated using grid coordinates, Cartesian coordinate, or a distance and direction.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the coordinates for the respective well target are updated using the distance and direction, and wherein the direction is measured using angles.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the objective function includes an objective representing an optimal position of the well location based on an economic metric or a production metric.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the well target constraint includes a minimum spacing or a maximum spacing for each well target.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subsurface well plan constraint is the well type constraint, and wherein the well type constraint represents one of a horizontal well, a slanted well, a multilateral well, a multi-target well, a single-target well, a producer well, or an injector well.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the profile data represents pipe and tubing connections and trajectories from subsurface locations to surface connections.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
displaying a well plan for the well location, the well plan including the subsurface well plan and the profile data.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the subsurface well plan constraint is the drilling cost constraint.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the simulation data is generated dynamically by a reservoir simulator.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the well location is an optimal location as defined according to a predetermined criteria.

Assignees

• Cullick Alvin Stanley
• Colvin Dan
• Halliburton Energy Services Inc

Inventors

• Cullick Alvin Stanley
• Colvin Dan

Classifications

• E21B43/30 Primary

  Specific pattern of wells, e.g. optimising the spacing of wells · CPC title