Integrated Economic Model for Evaluation and Optimization of Cyclic-Steam-Stimulation Projects

Abstract

Introduction The development of a hydrocarbon resource should be planned to maximize the net present value (NPV) of the project, subject to any imposed constraints. Maximizing the NPV of a thermal heavy-oil project can be complex because of the interplay of individual-well production and injection profiles with field-level production and injection constraints imposed by a central processing facility (CPF). In addition, for thermal heavy-oil-recovery methods such as cyclic-steam stimulation (CSS), the scheduling of the production, soak, and injection cycles of the wells has a significant impact on the overall project NPV. This study presents the results of a novel study to maximize the NPV of a greenfield CSS project by incorporating a newly developed analytical horizontal CSS model coupled to a field-production aggregation and scheduling model, which was in turn coupled to an economic-evaluation model. The close integration of these models allowed for the optimization of input parameters to be achieved simultaneously across all three models to maximize the NPV of the entire project. The integrated model work flow and the resulting optimized case will be summarized and discussed in detail. The significance of the work flow developed in this study is that it demonstrates that the key design parameters (such as the CPF capacity and schedule) of a thermal heavy-oil-exploitation scheme can be calculated and optimized on the basis of the economics of the entire project by use of an integrated model.