Oil production optimization solved by piecewise linearization in a Branch & Price framework

This paper presents a method for optimizing oil production on large scale production networks such as the Troll west field in the North Sea. The method is based on piecewise linearization of all nonlinearities, and on decomposition of the full scale problem into smaller sub-problems. Column generation in a Branch & Price framework is used to solve the decomposed problem. The methods differs from most Branch & Price methods by branching only on continuous quantities and by solving the subproblems using commercial MILP software. The method is applied to a realistic model of an oil field, the Troll oil and gas field at the Norwegian Continental Shelf, a petroleum asset with severe production optimization challenges due to rate dependent gas-coning wells. This study shows that the method is capable of solving instances of practical size to proven optimality.