Integration of Production Analyst and Microsoft Excel's Solver for Production Forecasts and Optimization

Abstract

Summary Mobil North Sea Ltd. has used OGCI's Production Analyst (PA) for several years for reservoir management and surveillance. Once most professionals had been migrated to Microsoft Windows and Excel, we began to integrate the spreadsheet with PA for specialized applications. Production optimization and forecasts are two applications of significant economic benefit. We developed an Excel spreadsheet and macro that use the Solver and production-decline data from PA for predicting the maximum platform oil production while honoring gas-compression and waterhandling constraints. By use of PA, a database of decline-curve information is generated by well for the relationships of oil rate, GOR, and water cut to cumulative oil. Other input required for the forecast are the combination of months and years to forecast, gas compression limit, water-handling limit, and platform efficiency at each timestep. This model adds value to our operations by leveraging existing products and data to predict facility-constrained production schedules. A custom program with this type of functionality would certainly be more expensive than the combined costs of PA and Excel. The integration of these tools provides cost-effective solutions to the specialized problems experienced in oil and gas exploitation.