Well Trajectory Design within the Integrated Field Development Optimization Framework

Abstract

The drilling of vertical wells was the most used technique in the oil and gas industry. However, as time progressed, the need to drill in a non-vertical path increased in significance. This led to the creation of directional and horizontal drilling. Due to the improvement in technology, these two different methods of drilling have become widely used in the industry today (Short, 1993). The usage of a single directional or horizontal well may be as efficient as using multiple vertical wells. Therefore, the main advantage of such methods in drilling is that it can minimize drilling costs while maximizing profit.

In this thesis paper, we develop a Python tool aiming at 1) designing the well trajectory and 2) assessing the feasibility of the proposed reservoir targets as part of the integrated well and facility placement optimization solution being developed by the OGED team. The input to the “building block” we are developing is the horizontal section of the well as well as the surface location. The output of the algorithm is a well trajectory honoring the well design constraints. We start by studying the different well design techniques, comparing their accuracy, and implementing these techniques in the tool. This discussion includes the different parameters related to the used well profiles. We apply the different methods to several well placement scenarios and test the resulting well trajectories within the framework of the integrated well and facility placement optimization solution to assess the impact on the efficiency and robustness of the solution as well as the associated NPV.