Oilfield Production Optimisation Via Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Programming (MINLP)

The integrated management of oil and gas operations is a challenging task involving short to long-term decisions. Some of these decisions include valve configurations, choke openings and complex well-manifold routings [1, 2]. Hence, novel advancements in mathematics, algorithm development [3, 4] and related scientific fields have found tremendous applications in the modelling, simulation and optimisation of complex phenomena for improved oilfield recovery. These methods hold strong potential for enhancing field profitability without additional facility/equipment installation costs or additional operations. In this study, it is demonstrated that a methodical application of simulation-based optimisation methods guarantees process enhancement by only finding the optimal well to manifold and pipeline to separator connections. This is achieved by developing explicit surrogate models, which are compatible with the adopted optimisation algorithms; thus, resulting in a Mixed-Integer Nonlinear Program (MINLP).