Hydrocarbon Production and Reservoir Management – Recent Advances in Closed-loop Optimization Technology

Petroleum production is a relatively inefficient process. For oil production, it is, generally, less than 60 % effective on a macro scale and less than 60 % effective on a micro scale. This results, commonly, in an actual oil recovery of less than 35 %. Optimization of the production process will, therefore, have a significant impact on the supply of energy. At various locations in the world consortia have been set up to develop new technology that would help optimize the production process. In 2005 Shell, Delft University of Technology, and Netherlands Organization for Applied Research TNO have started the ISAPP knowledge centre. ISAPP aims to develop innovative solutions for petroleum production based on a closed loop integrated systems approach. The projects in ISAPP address both reservoir characterization issues and control issues. Apart from a short overview, this paper presents two cases from the ISAPP project portfolio: an optimal control example that shows how well head choke control can be used to prevent wax deposition during production; a reservoir characterization example that deals with production history matching and prediction of production from new wells.