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Optimized Design of Collision Free Wells: A Comprehensive Approach to Various Trajectory Types

Society of Petroleum Engineers - ADIPEC 2024
2024
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Conference Paper Description

The primary objective of this research is to design collision free and economical well trajectories in a crowded brownfield oil and gas field with numerous legacy wells. This design includes various types of trajectories, such as directional and sidetrack wells. Another key goal is the strategic positioning of Electrical Submersible Pumps (ESPs) along the wellbore trajectories to enhance production efficiency and reduce drilling costs. The research also emphasizes operational safety and environmental management by avoiding collisions with existing wells. The approach involves developing a comprehensive method for generating optimized well trajectories in oil and gas drilling operations. This method incorporates the minimum curvature method and evolutionary modeling techniques to dynamically adjust and optimize trajectories. Geological, engineering, and operational parameters are integrated to develop trajectories that minimize drilling complexity and cost. Safety constraints are included in the optimization process to ensure collision avoidance with existing wells, thereby safeguarding operational integrity and preventing environmental hazards such as oil spills. The developed optimization method was tested in live oil and gas fields, specifically involving the design of 36 wells in Africa. The solutions resulted in significant length savings of 3.3 km and a substantial 13- fold reduction in collision risks. Additionally, the method successfully generated various safe sidetrack and deepening well trajectory designs accepted by drilling engineers. It also achieved automated ESP placement within the well trajectories. These results demonstrate the method's effectiveness in optimizing various well trajectories, minimizing drilling complexity, and adhering to safety constraints. The research findings highlight both the cost effectiveness and safety improvements achieved. Overall, this research significantly advances well trajectory design methodologies. It introduces a novel approach for generating collision free, optimized well trajectories of different types, including vertical, directional, and specialized sidetrack and deepening well trajectories. The method can also optimize ESP placement within the trajectories. Unlike traditional methods that depend heavily on a designer's experience and intuition, this approach utilizes evolutionary modeling techniques to dynamically generate well trajectories. By incorporating geological, engineering, and operational parameters, the method aims to minimize drilling complexity and cost while ensuring adherence to safety constraints.

Bibliographic Details

Umesh Singh; Rizwan Pathan; Amol Joshi; Adrien Cavé; Antonin Baume

Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE)

Earth and Planetary Sciences; Energy

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