The oil and gas industry, more than at any time in the past, is highly affected by
technological advancements, new products, drilling and completion techniques, capital
expenditures (CAPEX), operating expenditures (OPEX), risk/uncertainty, and
geopolitics. Therefore, to make a decision in the upstream business, projects require a
thorough understanding of the factors and conditions affecting them in order to
systematically analyze, evaluate and select the best choice among all possible
alternatives.
The objective of this study is to develop a methodology to assist engineers in the
decision making process of maximizing access to reserves. The process encompasses
technical, economic and risk analysis of various alternatives in the completion of a well
(vertical, horizontal or multilateral) by using a well performance model for technical
evaluation and a deterministic analysis for economic and risk assessment.
In the technical analysis of the decision making process, the flow rate for a defined
reservoir is estimated by using a pseudo-steady state flow regime assumption. The
economic analysis departs from the utilization of the flow rate data which assumes a
certain pressure decline. The financial cash flow (FCF) is generated for the purpose of
measuring the economic worth of investment proposals. A deterministic decision tree is
then used to represent the risks inherent due to geological uncertainty, reservoir
engineering, drilling, and completion for a particular well. The net present value (NPV) is utilized as the base economic indicator. By selecting a type of well that maximizes the
expected monetary value (EMV) in a decision tree, we can make the best decision based
on a thorough understanding of the prospect.
The method introduced in this study emphasizes the importance of a multi-discipline
concept in drilling, completion and operation of multilateral wells.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2356 |
| Date | 15 May 2009 |
| Creators | Arcos Rueda, Dulce Maria |
| Contributors | Zhu, Ding |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Thesis, text |
| Format | electronic, application/pdf, born digital |
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