How Integrated Field Studies Help Asset Teams Make Optimal Field Development Decisions

Abstract

Developing an exploitation plan for an oil field has always been challenging. This paper presents different approaches and addresses the important question of how to allocate asset resources to maximize profit. This study presents the analysis of integrated field case studies. Because of their complexities, integrated studies can offer valuable insights. Based on a field's heterogeneity and complexity, it can be relevant to divide it into different investment units. Individual studies can be generated, and based on their results, different exploitation strategies can be visualized. The strategies are based on economic criteria, such as net present value and the efficient use of resources. Capital investment efficiency is the key indicator that should direct resource allocation. Although there is no fixed method to find optimal decisions in a capital project, the FEL (front-end-loading) methodology measures and increases the level of project definition, thereby increasing the probability of project success at any stage of the life of the oil field. Traditionally, economic resources have been the principal metrics for analysis. However, the term resources encompasses many potential inputs to the system, e.g. drilling, facilities, enhanced recovery, and allocations. In complex oil fields with many independent reservoirs, it has been found that each reservoir has its own characteristics. That leaves room to experiment on new combinations for development, such as infill drilling, injection in the most favorable reservoirs or new potentional drilling locations. In many cases, it was found that the oil price had the greatest impact on projects, because their profit margin is lower than the rest of field. Small reservoirs or reservoirs that require marginal investment show the highest efficiency in investment, which means that investment efficiency is inversely related to the total amount of investment. This finding indicates that focusing solely on investment efficiency can mislead the optimal decision. Introduction An integrated field study is traditionally a sequential process; decisions are often broken down and disconnected. Often, reservoir engineers just model reservoir response to the bottom-hole, production engineers model the whole wellbore to the well-head, and process engineers model the surface facilities from the wellhead to the tank [Saputelli et al., 2002]. In general, most parties assume constant pressures at the boundaries throughout the simulation period. For the above reasons, project results often deviate from the project plan. In the building of field development plans, not all subsurface uncertainties are considered when evaluating all feasible surface scenarios. Changes in well productivity, water-front advance, free-gas production, and fluid composition will affect both reservoir and surface response. Because of these fluctuations, surface facilities may remain sub-utilized, a reservoir's full potential may not be obtained, and field economics may not reach peak performance. Field development decisions must be made despite uncertainties in well performance, subsurface response, equipment failure rate, and downstream demands. The heterogeneity of information and complexity of current hydrocarbon assets requires an iterative approach to identify the best opportunities. To succeed, this approach requires risk and uncertainty management. Optimal field development planning may involve identifying opportunities for increasing production from reservoirs, wells, and surface equipment, with the minimum effort.

Simulations of Field-Development Planning Help Improve Economics of Heavy-Oil Project

“…After gathering the key constraints, a typical FEL methodology (Batavia 1999;Saputelli et al 2008aSaputelli et al , 2008b was applied to consider both fixed and variable constraints that directly affected the surface and subsurface planning. The optimal development plan must consider the trade off between the number of pads and the resulting number of targets reached.…”

Metodologia TECLIM para uso racional de água na indústria: o banco de ideias no contexto da metodologia front-end loading

“…A qualidade e a consistên-cia das etapas iniciais do projeto predizem os principais resultados e impactam diretamente no sucesso do projeto, pois nelas são definidos escopo, prazo, custo, recursos e efetuado o levantamento dos riscos do projeto (MERROW et al, 2009;SANTIAGO et al, 2008). A metodologia FEL consiste, portanto, em um processo para o desenvolvimento de projetos competitivos que se baseiam na medição do desempenho e aumento do nível de definição do empreendimento com forte atenção às atividades iniciais de um projeto; sendo a avaliação econômica o principal parâmetro para estabelecimento da métrica de desempenho de um projeto (SAPUTELLI et al, 2008).…”

Best Practices and Lessons Learned After 10 Years of Digital Oilfield (DOF) Implementations

“…More than that, delays in the scheduling affect the field operation preventing the achievement of the production goals (Saputelli et al, 2008). Capital expenditure and resource scheduling is affected for several factors that should be identified on time in order to avoid downtime, cost overruns and substantial resource losses.…”