A Novel Integrated Approach to Oil Production Optimization and Limiting the Water Cut Using Intelligent Well Concept: Using Case Studies

Abstract

Intelligent well technology has provided facility for real time production control through use of subsurface instrumentation. Early detection of water production allows for a prompt remedial action. Effective water control requires the appropriate performance of individual devices in wells on maintaining the equilibrium between water and oil production over the entire field life. However, there is still an incomplete understanding of using intelligent well concept to control unwanted fluids and the way this leads to improving hydrocarbon recovery. The present study proposes using intelligent well technology to develop a new integrated methodology for selecting/ranking the candidate wells/fields, interval control valve (ICV) size determination, and ICV setting optimization. Various technical and economical parameters weighted by expert opinions are used for candidate well/field ranking to implement the intelligent technology. A workflow is proposed for ICV size determination based on its effect on a predefined objective function. Inappropriate ICV size selection leads to suboptimum production scenarios. Furthermore, this study proposes an efficient ICV setting optimization in an intelligent well. The objective function can maximize cumulative oil, minimize water production, or conduct both. It was shown that for selecting the optimized cases, the balance between water and oil production under predefined criteria should be practiced. Real case studies were considered to demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed methodology. A considerable improvement in the objective function was achieved using the developed methodology.