Optimizing the separation factor along a directional well trajectory to minimize collision risk
Peer reviewed, Journal article
Published version
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/11250/2671188Utgivelsesdato
2020-04Metadata
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Originalversjon
Vahid, M., Khosravanian, R., Wood, D.A., Aadnøy, B.S. (2020) Optimizing the separation factor along a directional well trajectory to minimize collision risk. Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology. (10),pp. 2113-2125. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13202-020-00876-7Sammendrag
Optimizing the trajectory of directional wellbores is essential to minimize drilling costs and the impacts of potential drilling problems. It poses multi-objective optimization challenges. Well-design optimization models initially focus on wellbore-length minimization, but ideally also need to consider minimizing the surface torque during drilling and address, among other constraints, collision avoidance with offset wells. A novel trajectory-optimization model is described that computes the separation factor along the wellbore. It employs a genetic optimization algorithm with an objective function that maximizes the minimum separation factor along the entire length of a wellbore. Plausible well trajectories are identified within a feasible solution space defined by user-identified constraints. The simplicity and effectiveness of the proposed model are demonstrated using a case study involving real well data from the Reshadat oil field offshore southern Iran. In the case considered, a proposed well trajectory is identified as unsafe in terms of its minimum separation factor with an offset well and is re-planned with the proposed model to achieve a safer trajectory.