Mature Well Prioritization Workflow for Hydrocarbon Production
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Solution Overview
Problem
The hydrocarbon exploration and production industry faces inefficiencies in increasing hydrocarbon production from mature assets due to a lack of information about older wells and overwhelming analysis tasks, with many mature fields having thousands of wells drilled before modern exploration and analysis tools were available.
Innovation Solution
A novel workflow is introduced to analyze mature hydrocarbon production assets, involving data screening, identifying conditions, prioritizing wells for corrective actions, and providing recommendations that consider both economic and service provider availability, using a collaborative process that includes detailed studies and coordination with service entities.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional manual analysis methods are used for mature fields, then analysis depth can be thorough, but the task becomes overwhelming and inefficient when dealing with thousands of wells
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the analysis process into distinct modules: data collection module, data processing module, analysis module, and reporting module. Each module handles specific tasks independently, allowing the system to process thousands of wells efficiently without becoming unmanageably complex. The segmentation enables parallel processing and distributed computation across multiple systems.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary computing system that acts as a mediator between raw well data and analysis results. This intermediary system automatically collects, standardizes, and pre-processes data from multiple sources before passing it to analysis algorithms, reducing the burden on manual analysis and enabling scalable processing of large well portfolios.
2Measurement precision
If comprehensive data collection is performed for all wells, then analysis accuracy improves, but information gaps from pre-computer era wells remain problematic
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary data collection and estimation actions for historical wells before formal analysis begins. The system proactively gathers available historical data, applies estimation techniques to fill gaps, and creates preliminary well profiles that can be refined later. This preliminary action ensures that even wells from the pre-computer era have sufficient data for meaningful analysis.
Solution Approach 2:
The system employs self-service mechanisms where estimation algorithms automatically fill data gaps using patterns from similar wells and available historical records. The system serves itself by identifying missing information and applying appropriate estimation techniques without requiring manual intervention for each data gap, thereby maintaining accuracy while handling incomplete historical data.
3Productivity
If detailed analysis is performed on all wells, then production optimization improves, but the overwhelming task volume reduces operational efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies partial action by performing detailed analysis only on wells that meet specific criteria or show potential for optimization, rather than analyzing every well exhaustively. The system uses screening techniques to identify candidate wells for detailed study, applying full analysis only where necessary to achieve production goals while minimizing overall analysis time and resource consumption.
Data Source
AI summary
Analyzing wells of mature field. At least some of the illustrative embodiments are methods including: gathering data about a group of wells; determining a condition of each well; creating an initial prioritization; creating a secondary prioritization based on at least one criteria provided by the client and the initial prioritization; analyzing at least some of the wells selected based on priority of each well in the secondary prioritization; interfacing with a service providing entity; providing to the client a first recommendation regarding corrective action, the first recommendation without regard to the service providing entity's availability to perform services; providing to the client a second recommendation regarding corrective action, the second recommendation taking into account the service providing entity's availability of crews and equipment; and performing at least one corrective action on at least one well, the performing based from the first or second recommendations.