Problem statement

Three basic optimization challenges are defined which are listed below. In addition participants are requested to provide a ‘manual' FDP obtained using more traditional industry approaches. A single economic model will be provided for use with all three exercises.

1. Well control optimization

Similar to the Brugge case a fixed configuration of wells has been provided. The flow rates and bottom hole pressures of the injection and production wells can be controlled. The objective is to provide an operating strategy for wells (rate and pressure) which is optimal for the objective function defined in the problem statement document.

2. Field development optimization

Participants can choose any set of controls to produce a field development plan including a drilling/completion schedule. The number and position of wells and platforms, as well as the well types and trajectories have to be decided. A reactive operating strategy should be implemented as described in the problem statement document. The objective function is extended with costs for platform and well placement. In order to ensure that the FDP is realistic all wells have to be tied to the platform and have to meet a realistic constraint on curvature.

3. Joint optimization of well placement and control

Using the input for the first two tasks defined above participants are encouraged to address the joint optimization problem as well, i.e. joint field development and well control optimization. Thus an optimal field development plan and optimal operating strategy will be the deliverable for this task. Relevant constraints are those specified for the individual optimization problems.

Reservoir Engineering Based Strategy

Participants are encouraged to develop a strategy based purely on reservoir engineering principles without using advanced optimization methods. The results will serve as a reference or as a starting point for the field development optimization task. This will help serve as a comparison measure for the different participants.

Deliverables by Participants

The optimization benchmark aims to deliver clear conclusions on the applicability and potential of different techniques or workflows. Therefore, participants need to address the same problem as much as possible and produce the same type of results. Therefore, several results and diagnostics that have to be reported are described in the problem statement document.