Implementing Integrated Solutions for Reservoir Management: San Joaquin Valley Case Study

Abstract

To achieve more efficient business processes by exploiting data and knowledge management, real-time systems and advanced analytical tools, most major integrated and service companies have developed, or are in the process of developing, intelligent programs also known as Digital Oil Field of the Future 3 . The i-field TM program represents Chevron's efforts to integrate people, processes, technology and information to achieve its vision of Upstream Transformation. Ultimately, this vision translates to higher-quality decision making and changes the way we operate our assets.A new multiyear i-field TM program, Integrated Reservoir Management (i-RM), was initiated in the San Joaquin Valley to enable efficient reservoir management (RM) and quality decision making for heavy oil assests operating under steamflood EOR technologies.The paper describes the journey undertaken by the project team to build a proprietary steamflood integrated reservoir management tool that answers the basic neverending engineering requirements: instant access to clean data, single source of information for everyone and seamless data-tools linkage. The ultimate benefit is not only increased time spent by engineers and earth scientists to analyze data but also consistent project design workflows and decision making processes across fields. In addition to above documented benefits, the manuscript includes operator's experience with project framing, development, deployment and user-acceptance. History of i-field program in San Joaquin ValleyChevron's San Joaquin Valley BU began implementing its first i-field solutions in 2003. Supporting field technical teams and operation groups, the early i-field projects focused on tactical tasks, often close to the wellhead and targeted production

Semiautomatic, Semantic Assistance to Manual Curation of Data in Smart Oil Fields

“…Similar study by Chevron reported the case of its Kern River field with 9,000 active wells that records 1,000,000 data points daily [19]. While large fraction of Chevron's data is in structured form, the rest is hidden in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access files on individual users' desktop that accounts for 70% of the knowledge value.…”

“…Data curation problem and potential solutions have also been documented by E&P organizations [1], [19]. Most efforts towards digital oil field vision addressed data management and curation issues in some form or the other.…”

“…Schlumberger developed a web portal for E&P operational and data management workflows to support the data integration process thereby enabling advanced search capability not only for data, but also for processes, people, knowledge and best practices [2]. Chevron's information architecture strategy for the digital oil field [3] and integrated solutions for reservoir management [19] reported similar efforts.…”

Toward an Automatic Metadata Management Framework for Smart Oil Fields

“…Exploration and production (E&P) life cycle includes data intensive activities like seismic data acquisition, geologic interpretation, modeling, reservoir analysis, drilling target selection, drilling, well logging and analysis, production and well monitoring that links the oil field measurements to oil field management decisions [2]. Illustrating the data intensive nature of one of these activities, a study by Chevron reported the case of its Kern River field with 9,000 active wells that records 1,000,000 data points on daily basis [19]. While large fraction of Chevron's data is in structured form, the rest is hidden in Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Access files on individual users' desktop that accounts for 70% of the knowledge value.…”