Exxonmobil Upstream Research Company

Exxonmobil Technology and Engineering Company

Exxonmobil Research and Engineering Company

Amr S El-Bakry

Curtis J Holub

Marco De Mattia

Mahsa Memarzadeh

Ted Alan Long

Kevin C Furman

Vikas Goel

Niranjan A Subrahmanya

Peng Xu

Sumeet Trehan

Benny S Budiman

Neeraj R Dani

Federico D Carvallo

Justin A Gantt

Sangbum Lee

Jin-Hwa Song

Aristides Miroyannis

Joseph K Bjerkseth

Richard Perry Connell

Jose F Zapata Usandivaras

Hubert Lane Morehead

Peeyush Bhargava

Damian N Burch

Feng Xiao

Zachary H Borden

James Dreher

A method of detecting and mitigating flow instabilities, such as slugging, in hydrocarbon production wells. Real-time production data pertaining to each well is are retrieved. Using the production data, patterns of flow instability are identified therein. A numerical model of transient and thermal multiphase flow in each well is generated. Well test data is are retrieved from a database. The numerical model is calibrated using the well test data. Using the calibrated numerical model, a parametric study is performed to determine how input parameters affect at least one of stability and performance of the wells. Results of the parametric study are queried to determine a type of flow instability and to determine operating conditions to improve performance of the wells. An advisory is provided to a user to change operating conditions of one or more of the wells, to improve stability and/or performance of one or more of the wells.

Detecting and mitigating flow instabilities in hydrocarbon production wells

A method for producing hydrocarbons in a gas lift well is disclosed. A gas lift rate of the well is monitored while producing hydrocarbons according to an initial gas lift performance curve. One or more well performance parameters for the well are monitored. Disturbances in the well are detected while monitoring the well performance parameters. Transience in the well is modeled. A new gas lift performance curve is derived based on the detected disturbances, the modeled transience, and the initial gas lift performance curve. An optimal allocation of gas lift is determined from the new gas lift performance curve. Hydrocarbons are produced using the determined optimal allocation of gas lift.

Opportunistic techniques for production optimization of gas-lifted wells

A method of predicting hydrocarbon production from one or more artificial lift wells is disclosed. Measurements and/or well test data are obtained from one or more artificial lift wells representing well performance at more than one time period. A statistical model, representing well performance, is generated. Using the statistical model and the measurements and/or well test data, real-time production of the one or more artificial lift wells is predicted and a measure of confidence is generated. Potential optimization opportunities are identified for well performance based on the predicted real-time production of the one or more artificial lift wells. The optimization opportunities are outputted. Hydrocarbon production activities are modified using the optimization opportunities.

Method and system of producing hydrocarbons using physics-based data-driven inferred production

A method is provided for determining the frequency of a multi-rate well testing operation in a gas-lifted hydrocarbon well. A well performance characteristic of the well is monitored using single-rate well tests. The monitored well performance characteristic is compared to a current well model performance characteristic. If the monitored well performance characteristic differs from the current well model performance characteristic by less than a predetermined amount, an amount of gas is injected into the well based on the current well model performance characteristic. If the monitored well performance characteristic differs from the current well model performance characteristic by more than a predetermined amount, a multi-rate well test is initiated the results of the multi-rate well test are fitted to a revised well model performance characteristic, and an amount of gas is injected into the well based on the revised well model performance characteristic.

Method and system for unconventional gas lift optimization

A diagnostic apparatus configured to communicate with a well test system comprising a plurality of wells in a field, comprising a receiving component configured to receive a well test data from the well test system, a transmitting component configured to transmit an abnormal well test signal indication, at least one processor configured to communicate with the transmitting component and the receiving component, and a memory coupled to the at least one processor, wherein the memory comprises instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the diagnostic apparatus to compare the well test data to one or more well test descriptors stored in memory, correlate the well test data to an abnormal well test result selected based at least in part on the comparison with the one or more well test descriptors stored in the memory, and instruct the transmitting component to transmit an abnormal well test signal indication to a recipient.

Automated well test validation

A robust well trajectory planning and drilling or completion planning system that integrates well trajectory optimization and well development planning optimization so that optimized solutions are generated simultaneously. The optimization model can consider unknown parameters having uncertainties directly within the optimization model. The model can systematically address uncertain data and well trajectory, for example, comprehensively or even taking all uncertain data into account. Accordingly, the optimization model can provide flexible optimization solutions that remain feasible over an uncertainty space. Once the well trajectory and drilling or completion plan are optimized, final development plans may be generated. Additionally, the optimization model may generate and implement modified well development planning and modified well trajectory in real-time.

Robust well trajectory planning

The present invention is a computational system to generate feasible marine transportation schedules given a proposed bulk material supply chain. The decision support tool will fulfill the objectives and scope defined above. The technology employed will require (a) the use of mathematical programming modeling techniques (mixed integer linear programming) to mathematically formulate the business problem, and (b) advanced proprietary solution methods to produce solutions satisfying all constraints of the mathematical model while optimizing an objective function. The decision support tool has the following capabilities: Read input data, Generate feasible bulk material ship Schedule, Evaluate bulk material ship Schedule with User-defined Objective Function, Allow Case comparison, Graphical user interface (GUI) for specifying input data and displaying results.

Bulk material ship routing and inventory management schedule optimization

Growing community of inventors

Houston, TX, United States of America

Amr S El-Bakry