PlanningPro Functionality
PlanningPro is an extension of the technologies encompassed in
NITEC’s MatchingPro software.
It is
designed to aid the user in developing optimal drilling
locations and schedules.
The software
utilizes all available computing resources and provides
flexibility to the user in defining and scheduling the
drilling program.
Planning Pro utilizes a proprietary process to evaluate prospective
new well locations, rank the new wells based on cumulative
oil, gas or BOE production potential and determines the
optimal combination of new wells. The technology developed in
PlanningPro allows
a minimal number of simulation cases to be utilized to
determine the optimal case. The process is completely
automated once the user specifies certain parameters.
PlanningPro can currently be utilized with the Eclipse, Sensor and
VIP simulators.
The PlanningPro Process
The prospective new wells to be evaluated
and scheduled are first imported or input to
PlanningPro. PlanningPro
requires only the well name. The simulation data deck
(template file) must include these same wells and the typical
well information – I, J, K, PI, etc. The simulation deck
should also include the typical well, field, gathering center
constraints, gathering center identification, well types, etc.
There is no limit to the number of prospective new
wells that can be input at this time. The user will later be
able to select the maximum number of wells to evaluate.
The drilling schedule parameters must be
input. These include days to drill each well, completion days
per well, number of drilling rigs available and the start date
for drilling. Simulation well types must be identified –
Liquid producer, Oil producer, Water injector, etc. This
should be consistent with the simulation data deck. The user
will then define the maximum rate constraint for each of the
wells. PlanningPro
will write the well rate constraints to the simulation data
deck.
Having defined the basic well and
simulation parameters, the user is asked to identify the
actual new wells to be evaluated. Typically, if the original
list of wells input to
PlanningPro included 50 wells, all of these wells would be
selected. However, this need not be the case. The user can
then define the objective function to be based on cumulative
oil, gas or BOE production. Economic parameters can also be
input in order to calculate a pseudo Net Present Value for
each case.
PlanningPro’s automated process first ranks all of the new
wells to be evaluated. This is based on a proprietary
objective function. This ranking is then used to simulate the
model performance starting with the highest ranked well and
adding each additional new well through to the lowest ranked
well according to the drilling schedule parameters. The user
can select all wells previously identified to be evaluated or
a lesser number from the ranked list.
The process of ranking the wells is
carried out with simulation runs of a relatively short
prediction period; shorter than the overall simulation
prediction period desired. Three to five years may be
simulated in the ranking runs if the full prediction period is
20 years. Once the ranking has been established the full
prediction runs are made.
As an example:
Number of wells to evaluate
50
Duration of full prediction
25 yrs
Duration of ranking runs
5 yrs
Number of short ranking runs
50
Number of full prediction runs
51 (includes a “no new wells” base case)
Prior to launching the automated process
the user must define the various CPU’s to be used. Multiple
CPU’s and simulator licenses will speed the process.
As the process progresses a bar chart is
generated to display the objective function value for each
simulation case – ranking through scheduling cases. PlanningPro
reports the cases being processed and those waiting to
process. If economic parameters were input on the Objective
Function screen, the “pseudo” economic analysis, discounted
net present value is displayed. (Black line on each bar.)
The resulting drilling schedule can be
displayed along with the production for each well. Case SCH001
includes only the highest ranked well; W12-6A in the case
below. The highest oil production from the new wells occurs in
Case SCH020 - 73,170 MSTB. Wells W12-6a through W41-31B are
included in that case.
PlanningPro allows the user to display production rate and
cumulative plots for any of the simulated cases and compare
one case to another. Results can also be exported to .csv
files for use in other applications.
The display below shows all 46
prospective new wells considered in the evaluation.
The display below shows the 20 new wells
in the optimal case. 26 wells in the original group were not
required to achieve maximum oil production from the field.
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