Real time production optimization in

upstream petroleum production - Applied to

the Troll West oil rim

Vidar Gunnerud, Bjarne Foss

Norwegian University of Science and Technology - NTNU
Trondheim, Norway

Outline
1. Problem formulation and today's solution
methods and work process at Troll C
2. New Solution method: Dynamic piecewise
linearization and Lagrangian decomposition
(2007-2014)
3. Troll West oil rim – Initial results

1
 Petroleum production -
Decision horizons vary a lot

Focus in this work

Oilfield Review 2006

2
 Production optimization -
Optimizing on a day-week horizon
Typical optimization problem
Maximize oil production while honoring
constraints related to the
underground hydrocarbon reservoir
wells
pipelines
downstream processing equipment
(separators, compressors,...)
Decisions variables
Production valve on each well (often
between 10 and 100 wells)
Gas injection valves (on some wells)
Routing of the reservoir fluid (often a
well may be routed to two different
production lines)

3
 Production optimization -
Stylistic view
Typical optimization problem
Maximize oil production
One of eight Troll C clusters while honoring constraints
Decisions variables
Production valve on each
well
Platform
Gas injection valves
Routing of the reservoir
Sea bed
fluid

Typical system boundaries

Upstream: Underground
hydrocarbon reservoir
Under ground reservoir
Downstream: Inlet
separator on downstream
processing equipment

4
 Production optimization -
Challenges
The optimization problem is a (large)
nonlinear programming problem
with integer variables
Well models can be highly nonlinear
Pressure drop models for pipelines
are nonlinear

Present optimization technology is a

constraining factor for real-time
production optimization

5
 Today’s solution methods
GORM (Gas-Oil Ratio Model
”In-House model”
Simplified reservoir model
Models gas coning
Adjusted to each well
Troll: 100 GORM models

GAP (General allocation

program)
Commercial software
Models the flow condition in the
network and operational constraints
Does not have an appropriate gas
coning model
Troll: 17 GAP models (clusters)

6 Ref. Duenas, 2007

 Todays solution methods

Production
Data
GOR Optimal
Prediction P, inj. rates

Wellbore
Info

Routing

7 Ref. Duenas, 2007

 Today’s solution methods
The integrated tools

8
 New methodological foundation

Methodological foundation for our work

Dynamic piecewise linearization
To linearize the problem
Lagrangian decomposition
To split the problem

9
 Dynamic piecewise linearization -
principle
Piecewise linearization of f ( x ) = x
2
By a modal formulation a
nonlinear function is
transformed into a piecewise
linear function
At most two adjacent ’s can
be non-zero
Converts a NP problem to a
MILP problem

For Troll this means

piecewise linear well
performance curves
piecewise linear pressure drop
models

10
 Dynamic piecewise linearization -
principle
Illustration of a dynamical piecewise
linearized well performance curve
11
To minimize error due to
piecewise linearization, good
accuracy and small intervals
between interpolation
coordinates are needed
This again results in a large
number of variables and will
hence be computationally
expensive
To handle this, it is possible to
dynamically insert interpolation
coordinates in demanding
areas
 Dynamic piecewise linearization -
principle
Solves the problem only
containing a small set of
interpolation coordinates
(coarse resolution)
Locates the solution
Inserts more interpolation
coordinates in that area
Re-optimizes
Converges when acceptable
accuracy close to the solution
is achieved

12
 Lagrangian decomposition –
principle
Lagrangian decomposition
(LD) is a method to
decompose an optimization
problem into two or more
disjoint (and hence smaller)
Relax the comman
problems
constraint
LD may be efficient for certain
network-type problems

The LP problem can be

decomposed provided the
Lagrangian multiplier for the
common constraint is known

13
 Lagrangian decomposition –
principle
To solve a Lagrangian
decomposed problem is a
iterative procedure
Solve both problem with Relaxed constraint
initial Lagrangian
multipliers Objective function
Check feasibility with
Lagrangian function
respect to relaxed
constraint
Calculate new Lagrangian
multipliers based on
heuristic
Feasible objective
function give lower bound,
Lagrangian function gives
upper bound

14
 Lagrangian decomposition –
Troll C
One of eight Troll C clusters

Constraint to relax –
gas processing constraint
GAS
CTOT ≥ q GAS
j
j∈Clusters

Lagrangian function – augmenting the objective function with

the common gas processing constraint
Max _ Z = q OIL
j − λ GAS (CTOT
GAS
− q GAS
j )
j∈Clusters j∈Clusters

Objective for each cluster Note: The overall optimization

problem can be split into 8 (much)
Max _ Z j = q OIL
j − λ GAS GAS
qj
smaller problems!

15
 Complete algorithm combining
Dynamic piecewise linearization and
Lagrangian decomposition

Solves the problem for each

cluster
Calculates the total gas
production
Compare gas production
with total gas capacity
constraint
Re-optimizes
Converges when maximum
oil production is found, while
honoring the gas capacity
constraint

16
 Implementation

17
 Troll C case and results
Tested on two clusters (11 wells)
plus pipeline system
Results compared with results using
GAP (commercial) software
Results are promising
Challenges
numerical instability
robustness

Problem size are highly scalable

(constraints 200-1000, variables 50
000 – 2 mill)
Solution time, highly dependent of
problem and problem size (5 min –
10 hours)

18
 Collabration with CMU

Professor Erik Ydstie’s

group
PhD student - Michael
Wartmann
They have developed an
network based analysis
of decision making in
complex organizations
Based on
thermodynamics
Basic conservation laws
for assets and liabilities

19
 Collabration with CMU

This network based

Methodological
foundation will be apply
to optimization in
upstream petroleum
production
Troll C will be used as
test case

I will visit CMU

Michael Wartmann
has/will visit NTNU
Professor Ydstie will visit
NTNU on regular basis

20
 Conclusions and further work
New algorithm for production optimization has been developed
Algorithm is based on a combination of Lagrangian decomposition
and dynamic piecewise linearization of nonlinear models
Preliminary test results are promising

Focus will lie on further development of Dynamic piecewise

linearization
Different Lagranigan decomposition methods will be tested
Troll C will be used as test case
Consider dynamic well models
Work will be continued in my PhD thesis project in cooperation
with:
Hydro (Marta D. Diez)
Carnegie Mellon University (Professor Erik Ydstie), Industrial
Economy and Technology Management NTNU (Bjørn Nygreen)
And others (Dept. of Petroleum Engineering and Applied Geophysics)

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