Controlling hydrocarbon production

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10570716-B2
Application number	US-201816012217-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 19, 2018
Priority date	Sep 2, 2016
Publication date	Feb 25, 2020
Grant date	Feb 25, 2020

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 control system communicably coupled to one or more inflow control devices (ICDs) and configured to perform operations 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 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 control system of claim 1 , further comprising receiving the plurality of reservoir measurements from one or more sensors positioned at at least one of:
a terranean surface; or
in the reservoir between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore.

3. The control system of claim 2 , wherein processing the identified plurality of reservoir measurements comprises inverting the reservoir measurements to determine the petrophysical model that comprises a water saturation value at a plurality of locations in the reservoir between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore.

4. The control system of claim 3 , wherein inverting the reservoir measurements comprises executing the Archie algorithm to the reservoir measurements.

5. The control system 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 control system of claim 4 , wherein determining the injectant flow comprises updating the petrophysical model using a Bayesian inference with the plurality of reservoir measurements.

7. The control system of claim 6 , wherein updating the petrophysical model using the Bayesian inference with the plurality of reservoir measurements comprises updating the petrophysical model using an ensemble Kalman filter.

8. The control system of claim 4 , 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; and
adjusting the ICD based on the flow of the injectant at the threshold location exceeding a predetermined value.

9. The control system 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 control system of claim 9 , 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.

11. The control system of claim 1 , wherein processing the identified plurality of reservoir measurements comprises inverting the reservoir measurements to determine the petrophysical model that comprises a water saturation value at a plurality of locations in the reservoir between the injection wellbore and the production wellbore.

12. The control system of claim 11 , wherein inverting the reservoir measurements comprises executing the Archie algorithm to the reservoir measurements.

13. The control system of claim 11 , 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 control system of claim 11 , wherein inverting the reservoir measurements to determine the petrophysical model comprises obtaining a probable distribution of resistivity in the subterranean hydrocarbon reservoir that is compatible with the plurality of reservoir measurements.

15. The control system of claim 14 , wherein the inversion comprises an inference of the probable distribution of resistivity in the subterranean hydrocarbon reservoir.

16. The control system of claim 1 , wherein determining the injectant flow comprises updating the petrophysical model using a Bayesian inference with the plurality of reservoir measurements.

17. The control system 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; and
adjusting the ICD based on the flow of the injectant at the threshold location exceeding a predetermined value.

18. The control system 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.

19. The control system 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.

20. The control system 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.

Assignees

• Saudi Arabian Oil Co

Inventors

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

Classifications

• G01V3/18

  specially adapted for well-logging · CPC title

• E21B43/20 Primary

  Displacing by water · CPC title

• E21B34/06

  in wells · CPC title

• G01V1/308

  Time lapse or 4D effects, e.g. production related effects to the formation (fluid flow per se E21B47/00) · CPC title

• E21B43/162

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