Hypervolume-Based Multiobjective Optimization for Gas Lift Systems

Abstract

Gas lift is one of the most widely used artificial lift methods, and the use of nodal analysis to generate the gas lift performance curve is well established. However, the optimal gas injection rate is often selected as the point with maximum liquid production, which neglects the cost of incremental injection gas volume. This paper investigates the determination of the optimal operational point using a multiobjective optimization technique by considering the trade-off between gas consumption and oil production. The indicator-based evolutionary algorithm transforms the multiobjective problem into a single objective one using the hypervolume metric computed in the objective space. For the gas lift problem, which is a bi-objective problem aimed at maximizing oil production while minimizing gas injection rate, the hypervolume metrics are identically equivalent to geometric hyperareas under the trade-off curve. The optimization is only applied to the monotonically increasing portion of the gas lift performance curve; thus, all trivial sub-optimal conditions are excluded. The optimal operational point of gas injection rate is determined by finding the maximum rectangular hyperarea under the performance curve. The proper determination of the optimal injection gas rate could not only improve the efficiency of the gas lift itself, but also reduce the burden on the maintenance of surface facilities. The method is also applied to the multi-well scenario where a novel multi-well gas lift performance curve is generated using multiobjective Genetic Algorithm, which could help determine the optimal gas allocation/distribution scenario. The described process is incorporated in an integrated workflow which further leads to fast delivery of analysis/results that enable production engineers to make smarter decisions faster in a repeatable way.

A New Energy-Aware Method for Gas Lift Allocation in IoT-Based Industries Using a Chemical Reaction-Based Optimization Algorithm

“…For more than one objective, engineering optimization problems are sometimes considered, which can be contradictory and conflicting. Multi-objective optimizations are known to be pliable to such problems, by which a collection of equally optimum trade-off solutions, known as the Pareto set, is created [36]. These approaches have helped to reduce energy usage, lower manufacturing costs and increase economic gain [37].…”