Closed Loop Reservoir Management - Oil Production

Section for Scientific Computing, DTU Compute, Technical University of Denmark

Center for Energy Resources Engineering (CERE)

Oil Production

The objective of this project is to increase the oil production from the Danish sector of the North Sea and from other oil fields as well. Increasing the oil production by 1% point in the Danish sector of the North Sea has an economic value of approximately 50 billion DKK. Only about 30% of the oil present is recovered by current oil production technology.

To increase the oil recovery, we do research in Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) for closed-loop production optimization of oil reservoirs. In NMPC we actively manipulate the water injection and the bore hole pressures (BHPs) to have a more uniform sweep of oil and to better recover the available oil. Prototype simulations indicate that the increased oil recoveries are in the order of 10% compared to current operation.

The schematics below indicate the principle of NMPC for increased oil recovery. The method is computationally intensive and requires high performance computing (HPC) facilities along with very efficient numerical algorithms. Our primary research is in expression of the NMPC problem and in improving the numerical algorithms to make NMPC feasible for oil reservoir production optimization.

Offshore Oil Reservoir

Offshore subsurface oil field consists typical of a number resevoirs. Multiple injection and production wells are associated with each oil reservoir. All these wells are connected to a platform.

Closed Loop Reservoir Management

The closed-loop diagram for oil reservoir management using NMPC is illustrated in the figure below. When new production related measurements and possible geological information (seismic) are available, data assimilation algorithms are used to update the reservoir models as well as the estimate of the saturation and pressure in the reservoir. Having the updated estimates and reservoir models, the trajectories of the water injection rates at the injection wells and the BHPs at the production wells are recomputed. These trajectories are computed such that the expected net present value (or a related financial measure) of the reservoir over its remaining lifetime is maximized. Only the water injection rates and BHPs corresponding to the first period of the trajectories are implemented. As new measurements becomes available (say 1 month later), the entire procedure is repeated.

High Performance Computing (HPC)

NMPC for closed loop reservoir management is computaionally demanding. We demonstrate the feasibility and economic potential of NMPC for closed loop reservoir management by simulation using high performance computer clusters at the Technical University of Denmark.

Publications

PhD Theses

Steen Hørsholt: Operational Optimization of Oil Reservoirs in the Danish Sector of the North Sea, 2019
Lasse Hjuler Christiansen: Optimal Control of PDE-Constrained Systems, 2019
Tobias Kasper Skovborg Ritschel: Nonlinear Model Predictive Control for Oil Reservoirs, 2018
Andrea Capolei: Numerical Methods for Oil Reservoirs Management, 2013
Carsten Völcker: Production Optimization of Oil Reservoirs, 2012

MSc Theses

Thomas Bruun Bertelsen: Uncertainty Quantification, Filtering and Prediction for Oil Reservoir Operations, 2015-2016
Lasse Hjuler Christiansen: Multi Objective PDE Constrained Optimization for Oil Reservoir Management, 2015
Steen Hørsholt: Simulation of Oil Reservoirs, 2015
Tobias Kaspar Skovborg Ritschel: High-Performance Computing for PDE Constrained Optimization in Oil Reservoirs Management, 2015
Peter Edward Ackermann: Stochastic Optimization and Risk Management in the Production Optimization of Oil Reservoirs, 2014-2015
Hosein Arya: Production Optimization and Simulation of Oil Reservoirs, 2013-2014
Søren Skov Hansen: Numerical Methods for Simulation and Optimization of Oil Production, 2012
Dariusz Lerch: Modeling and Production Optimization of Oil Reservoirs, 2011-2012

Papers

Computation of Phase Equilibrium in Reservoir Simulation and Optimization: T.K.S. Ritschel, J.B. Jørgensen

Oil Production Optimization by Integration of Matlab and Eclipse: S. Hørsholt, H.M. Nick, J.B. Jørgensen

A Least Squares Method for Ensemble-based Multi-objective Oil Production Optimization: L.H. Christiansen, S. Hørsholt, J.B. Jørgensen

Production Optimization of a Rigorous Thermal and Compositional Reservoir Flow Model: T.K.S. Ritschel, J.B. Jørgensen

An algorithm for gradient-based dynamic optimization of UV flash processes: T.K.S. Ritschel, A. Capolei, J. Gaspar, J.B. Jørgensen

The Adjoint Method for Gradient Based Dynamic Optimization of UV Flash Processes: T.K.S. Ritschel, A. Capolei, J.B. Jørgensen

Offset Risk Minimization for Life-cycle Oil Production Optimization: A. Capolei, L.H. Christiansen, J.B. Jørgensen

Dynamic Optimization of UV Flash Processes: T.K.S. Ritschel, A. Capolei, J.B. Jørgensen

Risk minimization in life-cycle oil production optimization: A. Capolei, L.H. Christiansen, J.B. Jørgensen

A least squares approach for efficient and robust short-term versus long-term production optimization: L.H. Christiansen, A. Capolei, J.B. Jørgensen

Multiple shooting applied to robust reservoir control optimization including output constraints on coherent risk measures: A. Codas, K.G. Hanssen, B. Foss, A. Capolei, J.B. Jørgensen

Time-Explicit Methods for Joint Economical and Geological Risk Mitigation in Production Optimization: L.H. Christiansen, A. Capolei, J.B. Jørgensen

A Mean-Variance Objective for Robust Production Optimization in Uncertain Geological Scenarios: A. Capolei, E. Suwartadi, B. Foss, J.B. Jørgensen

Waterflooding Optimization in Uncertain Geological Scenarios: A. Capolei, E. Suwartadi, B. Foss, J.B. Jørgensen

High Order Adjoint Derivatives using ESDIRK Methods for Oil Reservoir Production Optimization: A. Capolei, E.H. Stenby, J.B. Jørgensen

Oil Reservoir Production Optimization using Single Shooting and ESDIRK Methods: A. Capolei, C. Völcker, J. Frydendall, J.B. Jørgensen

Single Shooting and ESDIRK Methods for Adjoint-Based Optimization of an Oil Reservoir: A. Capolei, C. Völcker, J. Frydendall, J.B. Jørgensen

Oil Reservoir Production Optimization using Optimal Control: C. Völcker, J.B. Jørgensen, E.H. Stenby

NMPC for Oil Reservoir Production Optimization: C. Völcker, J.B. Jørgensen, P.G. Thomsen, E.H. Stenby

Adaptive Step Size Control in Implicit Runge-Kutta Methods for Reservoir Simulation: C. Völcker, J.B. Jørgensen, P.G. Thomsen, E.H. Stenby

Explicit Singly Diagonally Implicit Runge-Kutta Methods and Adaptive Stepsize Control for Reservoir Simulation: C. Völcker, J.B. Jørgensen, P.G. Thomsen, E.H. Stenby

Simulation of Subsurface Two-Phase Flow in an Oil Reservoir: C. Völcker, J.B. Jørgensen, P.G. Thomsen, E.H. Stenby

Presentations

Oil Reservoir Management and Production Optimization: J.B. Jørgensen, C. Völcker, A. Capolei, D.M. Lerch, S.S. Hansen
CERE Internal Meeting 2013

Computational Methods for Model Predictive Control: J.B. Jørgensen, D. Boiroux, T.G. Hovgaard, R. Halvgaard, A. Skajaa, N.F. Gade-Nielsen, L. Standardi, L.E. Sokoler, C. Völcker, A. Capolei, G. Frison, S. Schmidt, A.K. Duun-Henriksen
Workshop on State-of-the-Art in Scientific and Parallel Computing (PARA 2012), Helsinki, Finland

Optimization based Control in the Oil and Gas Industries: J.B. Jørgensen
CERE Annual Meeting 2012, Pharmakon, Hillerød, Denmark

Production Optimization and Reservoir Management: J.B. Jørgensen, A. Capolei, C. Völcker, D.M. Lerch, S.S. Hansen
CERE Symposium, Houston, TX, USA

Optimisation of Oil Production in Two-Phase Flow Reservoirs using the Simultaneous Method and Interior Point Optimisers: D.M. Lerch, C. Völcker, A. Capolei, J.B. Jørgensen, E.H. Stenby
17th Nordic Process Control Workshop, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark

Production Optimization for Two-Phase Flow in an Oil Reservoir: C. Völcker, J.B. Jørgensen, P.G. Thomsen, E.H. Stenby
17th Nordic Process Control Workshop, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark

Simulation of Two-Phase Flow in an Oil Reservoir using Adaptive High-Order Runge-Kutta based Time-Integration: C. Völcker, J.B. Jørgensen, P.G. Thomsen, E.H. Stenby
15th Nordic Process Control Workshop, Porsgrunn, Telemark, Norway

Software for Large-Scale Nonlinear Model Predictive Control: J.B. Jørgensen
SPE Applied Technology Workshop: Closed-Loop Reservoir Management, Bruges, Belgium

Closed Loop Reservoir Management - Oil Production

Oil Production

Offshore Oil Reservoir

Closed Loop Reservoir Management

High Performance Computing (HPC)

Publications

PhD Theses

MSc Theses

Papers

Presentations

Links

Research Groups

Resources (Software, publications, organizations)

Commercial

Journals and Conferences