Optimizing Well Locations in Green Fields using Fast Marching Method

When there is a large amount of data available with a study objective that requires running several scenarios incorporating millions of grid cells. This will limit the applicability of reservoir simulation, as it will be computationally very inefficient. For example, determining the optimum well locations in a field that will result in the most efficient production rate scenario requires a large number of simulation runs which can make it very inefficient. The main purpose of this research is to use a novel methodology known as the Fast Marching Method to find the optimum well locations in a green oil field that will result in the most efficient production rate scenario. The concept of radius of investigation is fundamental to well test analysis. The current well test analysis relies on analytical solutions based on homogeneous or layered reservoirs. The Fast Marching Method will enable us to calculate the radius of investigation or pressure front as a function of time without running any simulation and with a high degree of accuracy. The calculations can be done in a matter of seconds for multi-millions of cells.