System and method for scheduling cyclic steaming of wells

Abstract

The invention includes a method of scheduling cyclic steaming of a group of petroleum-containing wells including: inputting to a production-predicting means a group of data describing at least in part the past cyclic steaming and resulting production of a group of petroleum-containing wells; processing the data in the production-predicting means and outputting a group of production predictions for the group of wells during a future steaming cycle; inputting the group of production predictions into an optimization means; inputting an initial steaming cycle schedule for the group of wells into the optimization means; processing the group of production predictions and the initial steaming cycle schedule in the optimization means by the steps including: determining a ranking for the initial steaming cycle schedule for the group of production predictions against a pre-determined ranking criteria; producing a group of new steaming cycle schedules based on the ranking of the initial steaming cycle a schedule optimization algorithm; determining a ranking for the new steaming cycle schedules against the pre-determined ranking criteria; repeating the production of new steaming cycle schedules and determining ranking steps until some pre-determined termination criteria is met; and outputting a final steaming cycle schedule.