Integrated Production Modelling (IPM) serves as a powerful tool that fosters seamless integration among people and various technologies, leading to highly effective field management. This comprehensive approach encompasses reservoir engineering, production technology, and process engineering, providing an ideal platform for exchanging insights and arriving at optimal strategies for field development.
Right from the initial stages of constructing the IPM model, the opportunities it offers become evident, such as gaining a deeper understanding of the reservoir, ensuring better data quality, and proposing corrective actions for well-related activities or data gathering. As the full IPM suite is linked and calibrated, engineers gain the ability to conduct hydraulic calculations of the surface network, identify bottlenecks, optimize fluid distribution, and evaluate the potential benefits of future projects.
In its simplest form, IPM can be limited to surface network and deliverability modeling. For instance, the example below demonstrates the modeling of only a surface oil pipeline network:
However, IPM can be taken to a more complex level by incorporating wells and associated gathering/processing facilities into the model. The example below illustrates a case where all wells and associated facilities are comprehensively modeled:
A full blown IPSM involves all the components from reservoir to surface. One or more Reservoir simulators (e.g Eclipse), Well models (e.g. Prosper), Surface Model (e.g. GAP) and Facility model (e.g. Hysys, Unisim) can be connected together to produce the desired objectives.
Vision Advanced Petroleum Solutions (VAPS) follows a consistent procedure ensuring that the objectives of each stage are realized, and obstacles are tackled timely.
The general procedure to construction fully integrated production model is illustrated in the following flow chart:
1- Objectives Definition & Team Creation
IPM’s holistic nature requires dedicated and consistent effort throughout the construction phase and beyond. To ensure smooth progress, an efficient team comprising production engineers, reservoir engineers, and process engineers must be established with defined roles and responsibilities.
2- Data Gathering & Quality Check (QC)
A rigorous approach is crucial to quality check all data sources used in constructing the reservoir, well, and surface network models. This stage is pivotal for effective model construction and calibration.
3- Fluid Characterization & QC
Fluid properties play a foundational role in petroleum engineering calculations. A thorough understanding of fluid behavior at different temperatures and pressures, from reservoir to export, is essential.pressures, enabling data export in multiple formats.
VAPS utilizes rigorous Equation of State (EoS) matching in fluid modeling software (PVTp and/or PVRSim) for reliable and accurate representation of fluid properties under various surface pressures, enabling data export in multiple formats.
4- Models Construction
This stage involves comprehensive analysis of reservoir, well, surface network, and facility details, leading to model construction for each component. These models reflect component characteristics and offer optimization opportunities, ranging from data correction to field development strategy.
Brief description of required input data and benefits of each model type is available below:
5- Models Integration
Integral to Integrated Production Modelling, this step mirrors reality by considering properties, capacities, and constraints of each component during calculations. Running the model in an integrated manner enables evaluation of both macro and micro scenarios, within specific models or across the entire system.
