Computer-aided oilfield assimilation design system: Purpose and major capabilities

Oil field assimilation needs a complex of facilities and service lines for oil recovery, transportation and refining. It includes wells, collection stations, pipelines, meters, separators, formation pressure maintenance equipment, roads and power lines. Oilfield assimilation depends on the geographical and climatic features of the field, such as the areas under existing buildings, areas taken up by swamps, the value of lands for agriculture and forestry, permafrost and bodies of water. Consequently, construction planning in oilfields is a complex multi-objective activity which has to proceed at the lowest possible capital, labor and material costs while achieving high techno-economic performance. Before detailed geodetic and geological surveys are carried out, a general outline is designed which specifies on the regional map the capacities and localities of the main and auxiliary buildings and facilities as well as the number of years to put them into operation. As the oilfield is operationalized and more data become available, a general layout transforms into a more detailed master plot plan. The general layout remains a major document which dictates consistent and intelligent expansion of production capacities at all stages of the oil field operation. Design of general schemas by conventional techniques requires many skilled engineers engaged for a long time--there are relatively few alternatives to be considered. The only practicable way to reduce design time and labor consumption while improving the quality of the final design is to employ computing technology and mathematical methods. In projecting general schemes, the computer has been thus far employed to tackle only particular jobs, because no approach was available whereby the computer could be applied to handle all the jobs in the design of an oilfield facility. An approach which combines sound mathematical methods with designer know-how has been incorporated in a Computer-Aided Oilfield assimilation Design System (CAOLADS). The system is intended for designing general schemes both of separate technological systems (well interconnection system, in the case of inclined directional drilling; oil and casing-head gas collection and transportation system; seam pressure maintenance system, in the case of injecting water into the oil pool; power system; roads) and of any complex of these. It should be noted that to design the general scheme for each technol0gical system means to indicate in the area of the oilfield (for each given period of its exploitation) the location and development of facilities and service lines between them corresponding to the given technological system subject to a specified set of restrictions. The general diagram of system functioning may be presented as a sequence of the following stages (Fig. 1). The acquisition and preparation of source information performed in a design institute. The source information contains the following data (see Fig. 1, information support unit):