Model-based optimal process operational strategies in reservoir engineering using quantified model-uncertainty estimates

Project members: M.J. Zandvliet, P.M.J. Van den Hof, O.H. Bosgra

Sponsored by: Shell

Smart field technology is an emerging development in the oil and gas production industry (see Figure 19). It involves the application of measurement and control concepts to optimize the production of hydrocarbons over the lifecycle of a reservoir, and includes aspects such as measurement, data transmission, data handling and data interpretation, system modeling, uncertainty quantification, decision-making under uncertainty, optimization and control (cf. Figure 20). Smart fields technology may allow us to go from passive/reactive production scenarios to active/proactive production control.

This project concerns the development of control and optimization techniques for the optimal operation of reservoirs on the basis of dynamic models containing quantified uncertainty.

Figure 19: A smart field in which oil is produced through waterflooding.

Figure 20: Oil production represented as a model-based closed-loop control process.