Research on the overall optimization method of well pattern in water drive reservoirs

Well pattern optimization is an important part of oil field development design. The heterogeneity and anisotropy of the reservoirs should be considered when the wells are distributed. Considering that well pattern is a complex system with the interaction of each well group, this paper has proposed the overall optimization method of well pattern. In this method, the same of the water breakthrough time is the objective function and the location of each well is optimized. In this paper, the calculation method of the water breakthrough time of heterogeneity/anisotropy non-piston displacement reservoirs has been derived. Compared to the traditional numerical simulation, the new method is more suitable to solve well arrangement problems because of its higher efficiency. The optimal model has been solved by genetic algorithm. A conceptual model has been established to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. The optimized method can be used to realize the best match between the well pattern and heterogeneity/anisotropy reservoirs. © 2016, The Author(s).