Nonlinear Approach for Oil Field Optimization Based on Gas Lift Optimization

When the initial energy of a virgin reservoir is not sufficient or when\nthis energy falls below a certain limit after a production history the\nproduction rates won't be able to meet economic margins. It is then time\nfor artificial lift methods to come to aid. Among which, gas lift is the\nmost commonly used scenario. Being somehow an ancient tool with an age\nof over a century, gas lift is though still a challenging problem when\noverall optimization is the concern. When the injection gas is of\nlimited supply the problem is finding the best gas allocation scheme.\nHowever them are ever more cases emerging in certain geographic\nlocalities where, the gas supplies are usually unlimited. The\noptimization problem then totally relates to the wellbore and completion\nstring and fully engages with multiphase flow concepts. In the present\nstudy an intelligent genetic algorithm has been developed to\nsimultaneously optimize all role playing factors, namely gas injection\nMite, injection depth and tubing diameter towards the maximum oil\nproduction rate with the water cut and injection pressure as the\nrestrictions. The computations and real field data are mutually\ncompared.