Well Placement Near Oil-Water Contact to Delay Water Breakthrough

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Solution Overview

Problem

Wells placed near a free water level (FWL) or oil-water contact (OWC) in subsurface formations produce high amounts of water shortly after hydrocarbon production begins, reducing the cumulative hydrocarbon yield.

Innovation Solution

An approach that involves determining an area of interest based on reservoir properties, identifying sweet spot areas through clustering analysis, and drilling wells at specific locations to delay water production, using well paths that minimize water cut and maximize hydrocarbon production.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If wells are placed near the free water level or oil-water contact to access hydrocarbon reservoirs, then hydrocarbon production begins, but water production increases rapidly reducing cumulative hydrocarbon yield

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehydrocarbon productionVSAvoidwater production

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSLoss of substance

Solution Approach 1:

The system performs preliminary analysis of reservoir properties, FWL/OWC depth, and sweet spot identification before well placement. Clustering analysis is conducted in advance to determine optimal well locations that maximize hydrocarbon production while minimizing water production, allowing proactive avoidance of water-related problems rather than reactive management

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system identifies specific sweet spot areas within the reservoir with favorable local properties (porosity, permeability, saturation) and targets well placement to these localized zones. The clustering analysis groups sweet spots into distinct areas, allowing optimization of each local region's contribution to hydrocarbon production while avoiding water-prone zones

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Productivity

If wells are placed in sweet spot areas with high hydrocarbon saturation, then cumulative hydrocarbon production increases, but well placement complexity increases requiring advanced analysis

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvecumulative hydrocarbon productionVSAvoidwell placement analysis

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system replaces complex manual well placement analysis with automated computational methods. Machine learning models predict sweet spot locations based on reservoir properties, and clustering algorithms automatically identify optimal well areas, substituting human expert analysis with systematic computational approaches that handle the complexity efficiently

Inventive Principle:

Principle #28Mechanics substitution (Replace mechanical system)

Solution Approach 2:

The system transforms well placement from a qualitative decision process to a quantitative parameter-driven process. By analyzing reservoir properties (porosity, permeability, saturation), FWL/OWC depth, and applying clustering algorithms, the system converts geological data into precise well location parameters that optimize hydrocarbon production

Inventive Principle:

Principle #35Parameter changes

3Productivity

If wells are drilled with paths extending close to the free water level to access thin reservoirs, then hydrocarbon access is improved, but water cut increases reducing production efficiency

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvehydrocarbon accessVSAvoidproduction efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The system determines optimal well paths in advance by analyzing the relationship between FWL/OWC depth and reservoir geometry. Well path optimization is performed before drilling, selecting trajectories that access hydrocarbon-bearing zones while maintaining adequate distance from water contacts, preventing water coning and channeling issues

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system addresses the water production problem by moving from vertical well placement to three-dimensional well path optimization. By considering lateral positioning, inclination, and depth in combination, the system finds optimal paths that access thin reservoirs horizontally or at angles while avoiding direct vertical contact with water zones

Inventive Principle:

Principle #17Another dimension (Dimensionality change)

Data Source

PatentUS12509979B2Placing wells in a subsurface formation

Publication Date: 2025.12.30 SAUDI ARABIAN OIL CO

AI summary

Systems and methods for placing a well in a subsurface formation include obtaining reservoir properties from the subsurface formation; determining an area of interest based on the reservoir properties and a free water level or an oil-water contact in the subsurface formation; determining sweet spot areas in the area of interest based on the reservoir properties; identifying a location to place a well in the subsurface formation by performing a clustering analysis based on the sweet spot areas; and determining a well path for the well based on the reservoir properties and the free water level or the oil-water contact.