Controlling hydrocarbon production

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10125586-B2
Application number	US-201715690600-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 30, 2017
Priority date	Sep 2, 2016
Publication date	Nov 13, 2018
Grant date	Nov 13, 2018

Abstract

Techniques for controlling hydrocarbon production includes (i) identifying a plurality of reservoir measurements of a subterranean hydrocarbon reservoir located between at least one injection wellbore and at least one production wellbore; (ii) processing the identified plurality of reservoir measurements to generate a petrophysical model of the subterranean hydrocarbon reservoir; (iii) determining, based on the petrophysical model, a flow of an injectant from the injection wellbore toward the production wellbore; and (iv) adjusting an inflow control device (ICD) positioned about the production wellbore based on the determined flow of the injectant.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for controlling hydrocarbon production, comprising:
(i) identifying a plurality of reservoir measurements of a subterranean hydrocarbon reservoir located between at least one injection wellbore and at least one production wellbore, the plurality of reservoir measurements comprising at least one of crosswell electromagnetic (EM), borehole EM, surface electromagnetics, gravity measurements, or 4D seismic;
(ii) processing the identified plurality of reservoir measurements to generate a petrophysical model of the subterranean hydrocarbon reservoir;
(iii) determining, based on the petrophysical model, a flow of an injectant from the injection wellbore toward the production wellbore;
(iv) adjusting an inflow control device (ICD) positioned about the production wellbore based on the determined flow of the injectant; and
(v) executing an iterative process of steps (i) through (iv), the iterative process comprising comparing a previous plurality of reservoir measurements with a current plurality of reservoir measurements.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the plurality of reservoir measurements from one or more sensors positioned at least one of:
a terranean surface; or
in the reservoir between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein processing the identified plurality of reservoir measurements comprises inverting the reservoir measurements to determine the petrophysical model.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3 , wherein the petrophysical model comprises a water saturation value at a plurality of locations in the reservoir between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore, and inverting the reservoir measurements comprises executing the Archie algorithm to the reservoir measurements.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein determining the injectant flow comprises determining a floodfront between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore, the floodfront comprising a sum of the water saturation and a hydrocarbon saturation value at the plurality of locations.

6. The computer-implemented method of claim 5 , wherein determining the injectant flow comprises updating the petrophysical model using a Bayesian inference with the plurality of reservoir measurements.

7. The computer-implemented method of claim 6 , further comprising:
determining a threshold location between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore; and
determining the flow of the injectant at the threshold location.

8. The computer-implemented method of claim 7 , wherein adjusting the ICD comprises at least one of:
adjusting the ICD based on the flow of the injectant at the threshold location exceeding a predetermined value; or
shutting the ICD.

9. The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , further comprising stopping the iterative process when a difference between the current plurality of reservoir measurements and the previous plurality of reservoir measurements is less than a threshold value.

10. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein processing the identified plurality of reservoir measurements comprises inverting the reservoir measurements to determine the petrophysical model.

11. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein the petrophysical model comprises a water saturation value at a plurality of locations in the reservoir between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore.

12. The computer-implemented method of claim 10 , wherein inverting the reservoir measurements comprises executing the Archie algorithm to the reservoir measurements.

13. The computer-implemented method of claim 12 , wherein determining the injectant flow comprises determining a floodfront between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore, the floodfront comprising a sum of the water saturation and a hydrocarbon saturation value at the plurality of locations.

14. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein determining the injectant flow comprises updating the petrophysical model using a Bayesian inference with the plurality of reservoir measurements.

15. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a threshold location between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore; and
determining the flow of the injectant at the threshold location.

16. The computer-implemented method of claim 15 , wherein adjusting the ICD comprises at least one of:
adjusting the ICD based on the flow of the injectant at the threshold location exceeding a predetermined value; or
shutting the ICD.

17. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , further comprising stopping the iterative process when a difference between the current plurality of reservoir measurements and the previous plurality of reservoir measurements is less than a threshold value.

18. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of reservoir measurements comprise a plurality of reservoir gravity measurements that correspond to a bulk density of the subterranean hydrocarbon reservoir governed by the equation:
ρ b =ρ m (1−ϕ)+ϕ( S w ρ w +S o ρ o +S g ρ g ),

where ρ b is bulk density, ρ m is matrix density, ρ w is water density, ρ o is oil density, ρ g is gas density, ϕ is porosity, S w is water saturation, S o is oil saturation, and S g is gas saturation.

19. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the inflow control device (ICD) positioned about the production wellbore based on the determined flow of the injectant comprises:
adjusting at least a portion of a plurality of ICDs positioned about the production wellbore to restrict the flow of the injectant into the production wellbore; and
adjusting another portion of the plurality of ICDs positioned about the production wellbore to allow a flow of hydrocarbons into the production wellbore.

20. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein comparing the previous plurality of reservoir measurements with the current plurality of reservoir measurements comprises:
determining the plurality of reservoir measurements prior to step (iv) as the previous plurality of reservoir measurements; and
determining the plurality of current reservoir measurements subsequent to step (iv), the current reservoir measurements comprising at least one of crosswell electromagnetic (EM), borehole EM, surface electromagnetics, gravity measurements, or 4D seismic.

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co

Inventors

• Balan Huseyin Onur
• Gupta Anuj
• Georgi Daniel T
• Alkhatib Ali
• Marsala Alberto

Classifications

• G01V3/18

  specially adapted for well-logging · CPC title

• E21B43/20 Primary

  Displacing by water · CPC title

• E21B49/00

  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 title

• E21B43/162

  Injecting fluid from longitudinally spaced locations in injection well · CPC title

• E21B34/06

  in wells · CPC title