Automated Identification of Well Production Dynamics and Data Assimilation

Summary Traditional reservoir and production engineering methods are based on mathematical modeling of multiphase flow in an area constrained by the petroleum oilfield region and a number of wells. These transport phenomena are governed by a series of partial differential equations (PDEs) describing the conservation of mass, momentum, and energy formulated for each considered phase. The use of modern computational methods ensures that simulating a hydrocarbon system provides an accurate prediction of flow variables, which is only valid if the underlying models are perfect. Since any model is only an approximation of reality, the results of numerical modeling tend to deviate with time and hinder proper decision-making related to field development and management. An alternative method is proposed, which identifies the general form of governing equations using transient data, which are collected over a certain time interval in a discrete number of measurement locations. The obtained equations are then refined using traditional data assimilation techniques. These two components are integrated into the universal modeling platform, where the equations governing multiphase flow and non-linear coefficient are obtained only from the data without any initial knowledge of system dynamics.