Well Selection Methodology for the Deployment of In-Situ Shock Wave Stimulation Processes in Carbonate Reservoirs

The present disclosure relates generally to in-situ shockwave stimulation (ISS) and, more particularly, to well selection and methods of deployment of in-situ shockwave stimulation.

In-situ shockwave stimulation is a technique of generating shockwaves within a carbonate reservoir. Shockwaves are created by controlled explosions or similar mechanical means. As the shockwaves travel through the reservoir, the interfacial tension between oil and brine gets disrupted. Accordingly, in-situ shockwave stimulation can lower the capillary pressure between oil, brine and rock resulting in easier oil displacement by the injected brine. Moreover, in-situ shockwaves can be beneficial in reservoirs that have tight formations, heavy oil, or matured oil fields where extraction is more challenging.

Oil production is a developing technology for extracting heavy oil in industrial quantities. Factors that affect the difficulty of putting reservoirs into production include permeability, porosity, depth and pressure. The density and viscosity of the oil is the determining factor for extraction. Oil viscosity varies with temperature and determines the ease of extraction and temperature can be controlled so that oil can be moved without employing additional techniques. Density is more important for refiners since it represents the yield after distillation. However, no relationship links the two. Oil reservoirs exist at varying depths and temperatures. Although viscosity varies significantly with temperature, density is the standard in oilfield classification. Oil density is commonly expressed in degrees of American Petroleum Institute (API) gravity which are associated with specific gravity. The lower the API gravity, the denser the oil. By-passed oil is the oil that cannot be produced by existing wells and/or methods and will be left undrained.

Various details of the present disclosure are hereinafter summarized to provide a basic understanding. This summary is not an exhaustive overview of the disclosure and is neither intended to identify certain elements of the disclosure, nor to delineate the scope thereof. Rather, the primary purpose of this summary is to present some concepts of the disclosure in a simplified form prior to the more detailed description that is presented hereinafter.

According to an embodiment consistent with the present disclosure, a machine-readable storage medium having stored thereon a computer program for selecting a well of an oil field to deploy in-situ shockwave (ISS) equipment, the computer program comprising a routine of set instructions for causing the machine to perform the step of selecting the oil field in response to determining that a reservoir beneath the oil field contains by-passed oil. The reservoir and by-passed oil meet threshold requirements based on reservoir attributes. The set of instructions further cause the machine to determine, based on well availability data characterizing a type and availability of one or more wells of the oil field, whether an available well is present at the selected oil field. The set of instructions further cause the machine to select the available well in response to determining that the available well is present at the selected oil field and that the available well meets requirements associated with the type of well based on well availability data. Moreover, the set of instructions further cause the machine to deploy ISS equipment to the selected available well to extract the by-passed oil.

According to another embodiment consistent with the present disclosure, a system for selecting a well of an oil field to deploy in-situ shockwave (ISS) equipment. The system includes a database configured to store data characterizing an oil field and one or more wells of the oil field. The data includes reservoir attributes including whether by-passed oil is present at a reservoir corresponding to the oil field, an American Petroleum Institute (API) grade of by-passed oil present at the reservoir, and a coefficient of variation representative of heterogeneity of the reservoir. The data further includes well availability data characterizing availability and types of wells at each of the plurality of oil fields, the types of wells including abandoned wells, observation or surveillance wells, low production producer wells, and injector wells. The system includes a well selection engine configured to select the oil field in response to determining that the corresponding reservoir has by-passed oil with an API grade above a predetermined API grade threshold and has a coefficient of variation above a predetermined heterogeneity threshold based on the reservoir attributes provided by the database. The well selection engine can further select an available well of the oil field in response to determining that the well is available and that the well meets requirements associated with the type of well based on the well availability data provided by the database. Additionally, the well selection engine can deploy ISS equipment to the selected available well of the second oil field to extract the by-passed oil.

According to yet another embodiment consistent with the present disclosure, A method for selecting a well of an oil field to deploy in-situ shockwave (ISS) equipment for oil extraction. The method includes selecting the oil field in response to determining that the corresponding reservoir to the oil field has by-passed oil with an American Petroleum Institute (API) grade above a predetermined API grade threshold and has a coefficient of variation above a predetermined heterogeneity threshold based on the reservoir attributes stored in a database. The method further includes selecting an available well of the oil field based on well availability data stored in the database. The method can include selecting a type of well, such as an abandoned well. Additionally, the method includes selecting an observation or surveillance well if the abandoned well is unavailable. Additionally, the method can include selecting a low production producer well, wherein the low production producer well is selected if the abandoned and observation or surveillance wells are unavailable and the low production producer well has by-passed oil above a predetermined water cut threshold based on well availability data stored in the database. Moreover, the method can include selecting an injector well if the abandoned and observation or surveillance wells are unavailable, the low production producer well is unavailable or has a water cut that is below the water-cut threshold, the injector well has a wellhead pressure that is below a predetermined pressure threshold, and a predicted lifetime of ISS equipment deployed to the injector well has a lifetime greater than predetermined length based on well availability data stored in the database. Accordingly, the method can include deploying ISS equipment to the selected well.

Any combinations of the various embodiments and implementations disclosed herein can be used in a further embodiment, consistent with the disclosure. These and other aspects and features can be appreciated from the following description of certain embodiments presented herein in accordance with the disclosure and the accompanying drawings and claims.

Embodiments of the present disclosure will now be described in detail with reference to the accompanying Figures. Like elements in the various figures may be denoted by like reference numerals for consistency. Further, in the following detailed description of embodiments of the present disclosure, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the claimed subject matter. However, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the embodiments disclosed herein may be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features have not been described in detail to avoid unnecessarily complicating the description. Additionally, it will be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the scale of the elements presented in the accompanying Figures may vary without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.

Embodiments in accordance with the present disclosure generally relate to in-situ shockwave stimulation (ISS) and, more particularly, to well selection and methods of deployment of in-situ shockwave stimulation. By-passed oil can be left in reservoirs of oil fields after initial production of oil from the reservoirs. The by-passed oil can be extracted by employing ISS equipment to mobilize the by-passed oil. However, oil fields can be complex, such that oil reservoirs of oil fields can have varying degrees of heterogeneity, as well as fluid composition and volume. Therefore, ISS equipment is not universally applicable to all oil fields with by-passed oil. Furthermore, not all oil fields have abandoned oil wells that are available to deploy ISS equipment. Rather, oil fields can have wells of types including injector wells, low production producer wells, and observation and surveillance wells. Thus, implementing ISS equipment to extract oil from an oil field of a plurality of oil fields requires knowledge and processing of numerous variables that impact the reservoirs and recovery of by-passed oil. For example, ISS equipment can improve production if placed in a suitable well by disruption of interfacial tension of a well and lowering capillary pressure. However, if placed in an unsuitable well, the interfacial tension and capillary pressure does not change to increase production, such that deployment of ISS equipment to unsuitable wells poses a greater risk to the equipment relative to production. This and other factors make well selection for ISS complex and non-trivial, and requires taking into account many variables as described herein.

A well selector tool can select the most appropriate well of an oil field in response to determining that by-passed oil is present at the oil field. For example, an abandoned well may be most preferable for ISS equipment because the abandoned well may be in better condition than other wells and easier to adapt for oil extraction. Furthermore, integrity of an abandoned well may likely be higher than other wells, such that an abandoned well is safer for technicians to deploy ISS equipment compared to other wells. In certain situations, an observation or surveillance well can be more preferable to a low production producer well for similar reasons. Additionally, the well selector tool can select wells of the oil field considering factors such as water in the low production producer well, wellhead pressure of injector wells, and the risk of damage to ISS equipment if deployed in particular wells. For example, tools employed by ISS equipment may not be able to stand high wellhead pressure. Thus, the well selector tool can select wells of a plurality of oil fields to safely and efficiently extract by-passed oil, while extending the life of the ISS equipment. The well selector tool further provides a uniform system for analyzing heterogeneity of reservoirs, oil properties, and well types, as well as deploying ISS equipment compared to existing systems with distinct components for separately analyzing oil fields.

is a block diagram of an example well selection systemconfigured to select a wellof a plurality of oil fieldsto implement in-situ shockwave (ISS) equipment. Communication within well selection systemcan be conducted via private network (e.g., wireless carrier network), a public network, (e.g., Internet), or a combination thereof. The well selection systemcan include a computing platform. The computing platformcan include a memoryfor storing machine readable instructions and data, as well as a processing unitfor accessing the memoryand executing the machine readable instructions. The memoryrepresents a non-transitory machine-readable memory (or other medium), such as random access memory (RAM), a solid state drive, a hard disk drive, or a combination thereof. The processing unitcan be implemented as one or more processor cores. The computing platformcan further include a network interface (not shown in), such as a network interface card configured to communicate with other nodes of the well selection system.

The computing platformcan be implemented in a computing cloud. In such a situation, features of the computing platform, such as the processing unit, the network interface, and the memorycan be representative of a single instance of hardware or multiple instances of hardware with applications executing across the multiple instances (e.g., distributed) of hardware (e.g., computers, routers, memory, processors, or a combination thereof). Alternatively, the computing platformcan be implemented on a single dedicated server or workstation. Furthermore, in some examples, the computing platformcan be employed to implement other nodes of the well selection systemin a similar manner. However, for purposes of simplification, only some details of the computing platformare illustrated in.

The memorycan include a well selector tool. The well selector toolcan be configured/programmed to select a wellin which to deploy ISS equipment. The well selector toolcan select a given wellbased on characteristics of the respective oil field, as well as suitability of a plurality of wellsof the respective oil field. More specifically, the well selector toolcan select an oil fieldthat has an oil reservoir with by-passed oil. The given wellof the selected oil fieldis selected in response to the well selector tooldetermining that the given wellis a suitable candidate for ISS equipmentin view of the factors described hereinbelow. Moreover, the well selector toolcan select multiple wellsbelonging to different oil fields.

The well selector toolcan include modules that execute specific operations to assist with the well selection. Specifically, the well selector toolcan include a well selection engine. The well selection enginecan receive data characterizing the oil fieldsand wellsto select a wellof an oil fieldfor ISS deployment. In some examples, the data characterizing oil fieldsand wellscan be stored on a database, which can be another module of the well selector tool. In other examples, the databasecan be implemented in memoryseparate from the well selector toolor by another computing platform. More specifically, the databasecan store historical welland oil field characteristics, such as well availability (and attribute) dataand reservoir attributes. Accordingly, the well selection enginecan select an oil fieldand a wellof the oil field based on the well availability dataand reservoir attributesstored in the database.

In some examples, data characterizing the wellsand oil fieldsincluding reservoir attributesand well availability datacan be provided by a user as inputs. Furthermore, a technician or user of the well selector toolcan initiate the well selector toolvia interaction with a peripheral component of the computing platform, which can be another input. Additionally or alternatively, the inputscan be provided to the well selection engineof the well selector toolover a network. The network can be an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) network, 5G broadband network, a 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, or local area network (LAN) compatible with Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802 standards. Particularly, the inputscan be provided to the well selection engineby a user via a remote device or another computing platform, such that the well selection enginecan receive data characterizing wellsand oil fieldsvia a network and/or the database. Furthermore, the well selection enginecan provide data indicating a selected wellto the ISS equipmentover the network. Accordingly, the well selection toolcan initiate ISS equipmentoperations, which can include transporting and activating the ISS equipmentat a selected welland stimulating the wellwith shockwaves via the ISS equipment.

As mentioned above, selection of an oil fieldof a plurality of oil fields by the well selection enginecan be based on reservoir attributes. Each oil fieldcan have a plurality of reservoir attributes. That is, beneath each oil fieldis a reservoir that can hold oil or have a subsurface pool of hydrocarbons contained within fractured rock formations. Accordingly, a reservoir attributecan be indicia of whether the oil fieldhas a reservoir that contains by-passed oil. By-passed oil is oil that has not been extracted in previous production processes at the oil-field. Thus, by-passed oil in an oil reservoir of an oil fieldcan potentially be dislodged and extracted using shockwave stimulation via ISS equipment. Alternatively, if the oil reservoir of the oil fielddoes not contain, or contains small amounts of by-passed oil, extraction may not render any or enough oil to be desirable for deployment of ISS equipment. Presence of by-passed oil can be a reservoir attributeprovided as an input from reservoir simulation and modeling, oil production data analysis, seismic surveys, well logging and testing, well intervention and reservoir monitoring, core sample analysis, and/or enhanced oil recovery (EOR) techniques. In an example, presence of by-passed oil can be a reservoir attributeprovided to the databasein response to another computing system performing reservoir simulation and modeling or by a technician entering the inputto computing platform in response to analyzing core samples.

Another reservoir attribute for a given oil fieldto be considered by well selectin engineis American Petroleum Institute (API) grade (e.g., API gravity grade), which is based on a ratio of the density of the oil in the reservoir to the density of water at 15.6 degrees Celsius. For example, light crude oil have an API grade above 31.1, medium crude oil have an API grade between 22.3 and 31.1, and heavy crude oil has an API grade below 22.3. Thus, oils with higher API grades are less viscous and can flow more easily. Therefore, reservoirs of oil fieldswith higher API grades are preferable compared to oil fieldswith reservoirs with lower API grades to deploy ISS equipmentbecause the oil of such reservoirs with higher API grades are more responsive to shockwaves and agitation to induce extraction. Accordingly, if an oil fieldhas by-passed oil and an API grade above a predetermined grade threshold, the oil fieldcan be selected by the well selection engine. The API grade of by-passed oil of a reservoir can be provided as an inputin response to performing oil sampling and analysis, historical data based on the geological properties of the reservoir, and/or comparing the reservoir under observation to an adjacent reservoir.

Yet another reservoir attribute for a given oil fieldfor consideration by well selection enginecan be reservoir heterogeneity, which refers to variations in the structure of the fractured rock formations and the composition of oil within the reservoir beneath a respective oil field. For example, a heterogeneous reservoir can have porous and permeable rock formations, such that more pore space of the rock formations can hold more fluids including oil and permeability impacts ability of the fluids to move through the rock formation. Additionally, fluids in the rock formation can be heterogeneous by having low viscosity and low saturation, such that heterogeneity can be related to API grade. Therefore, a heterogeneous reservoir renders a corresponding oil fieldfavorable for shock wave stimulation. Although related to API grade, heterogeneity of a reservoir can be determined with similar methods used to determine the presence of by-passed oil, such that the heterogeneity can be an inputprovided to the well selector toolin a manner similar to presence of by-passed oil. Moreover, heterogeneity of a reservoir can also be quantified with a coefficient of variation, which is the degree of variability in reservoir porosity, permeability, and saturation. Therefore, a reservoir with a coefficient of variation that is above a predetermined heterogeneity threshold can be preferable for deployment of ISS equipmentbecause oil mobility will increase with heterogeneity of a reservoir. Thus, the predetermined heterogeneity threshold can also be provided as an input

In some examples, each oil fieldcan be associated with a single oil field site. Alternatively, the plurality of oil fieldscan be part of a given oil field site. In either example, the plurality of oil fieldscan include “N” number of oil fields, such that N is an integer greater than or equal to one. Accordingly, the “Nth” oil fieldcan represent the last oil fieldof the plurality of oil fieldsif arranged logically in series from 1-N. For purposes of simplification, the oil fields can be referred to as a first oil field(), second oil field(), and Nth oil field(N) as illustrated in.

In an example, the first oil field() can be chosen by the well selection engineto determine whether to select the first oil field() for deployment of the ISS equipment. Accordingly, the well selection enginecan determine that first oil field() does not have by-passed oil in the reservoir associated with the first oil field() based on reservoir attributesfor the first oil field(). Thus, the well selection() can choose the next oil field() to determine whether ISS equipmentcan be deployed at the second oil field() based on reservoir attributesassociated with the reservoir of the second oil field(). Because the first oil field() does not have by-passed oil according to the reservoir attributes, the well selector enginecan move to the second oil field() without determining whether the first oil field() has an API grade above a predetermined grade threshold because there is no oil at the first oil field(). In contrast, the second oil field() can have by-passed oil as indicated by the reservoir attributes, such that the well selection enginecan determine whether the oil of the second oil field() has an API grade above a predetermined grade threshold. Thus, the well selection enginecan determine that the second oil field() has an API grade that is below a predetermined grade threshold, such that the well selection enginechooses another oil field. That is, the well selection enginecan select another oil field, rather than selection a wellof a given oil field based on the reservoir attributes.

The well selection enginecan select the Nth oil field (N) in response to analyzing and/or selecting the first or second oil fields(-). Similarly, the well selection enginecan determine whether the Nth oil field(N) has a reservoir with by-passed oil that has an API grade above a predetermined grade threshold, in addition to heterogeneity of the reservoir. In response to determining that the Nth oil field(N) has an oil reservoir with by-passed oil with an API grade above the predetermined grade threshold and acceptable heterogeneity, the well selection enginecan select the Nth oil field(N) and determine whether to select any of the wellsof the Nth oil field(N).

The well selection enginecan determine whether to select a wellof a selected oil fieldbased on well availability data. For example, well availability datacan indicate whether any wellsof a selected oil field are available abandoned wells, available observation or surveillance wells, available low production produced wells, or available injector wells. That is, well availability datacan indicate a type and availability for each wellof an oil field. Accordingly, the well selection enginecan select a given wellof a selected oil fieldif the well availability dataindicates that the given well is available for ISS equipment. For example, not all oil fieldsmay have an abandoned well available and not all oil fieldsmay have an observation surveillance well. Additionally, injector well types can have a wellhead pressure more than 13.7 MegaPascals (MPa) (e.g., 2000 pounds per square inch (PSI)) and low production producer wells can have a water cut less than 97%, such that these wellsare not suitable for ISS equipmenteven if these wellsare available. For example, wells that are not suitable for ISS equipmentcan pose a risk to damaging the ISS equipment. Documentation and records stored in the databasecan be employed by the well selection engineto determine the available wells, as well as the types of wells. Alternatively, availability and types of wellscan be inputsprovided in response surveys, aerial imagery, seismic data, or indication by a technician.

illustrates an example set of oil fields()-() and oil wells. The set of oil fields()-() can be a subset of a plurality of oil fieldshaving N number of oil fields. The first and second oil fields()-() can be the first and second oil fields()-() of. Thus, the first oil field() can have reservoir attributes (e.g., reservoir attributesof) indicating that the first oil field() does not have by-passed oil. Again, the second oil field() can have reservoir attributes indicating that the second oil field() does not have an API grade above a predetermined grade threshold and/or have a heterogeneous reservoir. Thus, the wellsof the first and second oil fields()-() can be unanalyzed wells, such that a well selection engine (e.g., well selection engineof) does not determine whether the wellsare available and of a type that is suitable for ISS equipment (e.g., ISS equipmentof). In a situation where the reservoir of a given oil fieldis not heterogeneous having by-passed oil of an API grade above a predetermined grade threshold, the well selection enginecan skip analysis of the wellsof given oil field.

Oil fields()-() can each have reservoir attributes indicating a heterogeneous reservoir with by-passed oil having an API grade above a predetermined grade threshold. Each of the oil fields()-() can also have oil wellsthat are available and suitable for deployment of ISS equipment. For example, the third oil field() can have an available abandoned well, which can be determined by the well selection engine based on well availability data (e.g., well availability dataof). Accordingly, the well selection enginecan select the available abandoned wellfor deployment of ISS equipment. A fourth oil field() can have an available observation or surveillance well. Therefore, the well selection engine can select the available observation or surveillance wellfor deployment of ISS equipment. Additionally, the third oil field() can also have an available observation or surveillance well. However, the available abandoned wellcan be selected instead of the available observation or surveillance wellbecause the available abandoned wellis preferable to observation or surveillance wellsfor ISS equipment. Additionally, the fourth oil field() can also have an available low production producer well. However, the available observation or surveillance wellis more preferable for implantation of ISS equipment than the available low production producer well.

A fifth oil field() can also have an available low production producer welland be devoid of available abandoned wellsor available observation or surveillance wells. However, a well selection engine may select a low production producer wellbased on availability in addition to water cut, which can also be a characteristic or data point stored in well availability data. The available low production producer wellof the fifth oil field() can have a water cut of less than a predetermined water cut threshold. For example, the available low production producer wellof the fifth oil field() can have a water cut below 97%, such that the low production producer wellis not suitable for implementation of ISS equipment. Instead, the sixth oil field() can have a low production producer wellthat has a water cut above 97%, such that the low production producer wellof the sixth oil field() exceeds the predetermined water cut threshold. Therefore, the low production producer wellof the sixth oil field() can be suitable for implementation of ISS equipment and selected by the well selection engine.

The seventh oil field() can include an available injector welland be devoid of available abandoned wells, available observation or surveillance wells, or available low production producers wells. Well selection enginecan select the injector wellbased on availability, in addition to wellhead pressure, which can be another characteristic or data point stored in well availability data. The wellhead pressure of the available injector wellat the seventh oil field() can be above a pressure threshold. For example, the available injector wellof the seventh oil field() can have a well head pressure above 13.7 MegaPascals (MPa), such that the available injector wellis unsuitable for ISS equipment.

The eighth oil field() can also include an available injector welland be devoid of available abandoned wells, available observation or surveillance wells, or available low production producers wells. The wellhead pressure of the available injector wellof the eighth oil field() can be less than the pressure threshold, such that the available injector wellcould be suitable for ISS equipment. However, if an injector wellis available and has a wellhead pressure less than the pressure threshold, the well selection engine can perform additional analysis to determine whether to implement ISS equipment at the injector well. Particularly, the well selection engine can perform a risk analysis to whether ISS equipment deployed at the injector wellwill have a long enough life span to justify extraction of the by-passed oil at the eighth oil field(). Specifically, the well selection enginecan deploy ISS equipmentif the well selection engine determines that the cost and lifespan of the ISS equipment is outweighed by the value of by-passed oil extracted at the eighth oil field().

illustrates different complexities, such as variation in oil reservoirs of oil fields, as well as considerations and variations among oil wellsat the oil fieldsthat can impact a decision to implement ISS equipment. Well selection enginecan make determinations based on historical data characterizing the oil fieldsand wellsto accurately and efficiently select oil wellssuitable for ISS implementation. More specifically, the well selection enginecan prioritize and select wells to extend the life of the ISS equipment and extract oil from oil fieldsin the most safe and efficient manner presented by the wellsfor each oil field.

In view of the structural and functional features described above, example methods will be better appreciated with reference to. While, for purposes of simplicity of explanation, the example method ofis shown and described as executing serially, it is to be understood and appreciated that the present examples are not limited by the illustrated order, as some actions could in other examples occur in different orders, multiple times and/or concurrently from that shown and described herein. Moreover, it is not necessary that all described actions be performed to implement the method, and conversely, some actions may be performed that are omitted from the description.

is an example flow diagram of a methodfor selecting a well to deploy ISS equipment. The methodcan be implemented by the well selector toolto deploy ISS equipmentto an oil field, as shown in. Thus, reference can be made to the examples ofin the example of. The methodcan begin atby initiating analysis by a well selection engine (e.g., the well selection engineof) of the well selector tool in response to receiving an input (e.g., inputsof) from a peripheral device of a computing platform (e.g., computing platformof) executing the well selector tool. The input can be, for example, a user selection of oil fields to be analyzed via a peripheral component coupled to the computing platform. In other examples, the input can be provided to the well selection enginevia a network connection (e.g., networkof) in response to a user interacting with the remote device. The inputs can indicate a plurality of oil fields to be analyzed, as well as predetermined thresholds such as the water cut threshold, the pressure threshold, and the API threshold. Alternatively, indicia of the plurality of oil fields and the predetermined thresholds can be stored in a database (e.g., databaseof) of the well selector tool along with well availability data (e.g., well availability dataof) and reservoir attributes (e.g., reservoir attributes) that are available to the well selection engine in response to instantiation.

At, the well selection engine can select an oil field of the plurality of oil fields in response to instantiation of the well selection engine at. For example, the well selection enginecan select a first oil field (e.g., oil field() of) of the plurality of oil fields. Particularly, the well selection engine can select a next oil field of the plurality of oil fields as if arranged in series with an N number of oil fields. Alternatively, the oil fields can be arranged in series based on proximity to available ISS equipment, which can be indicated by the inputs by a user of the well selector tool. At, the well selection engine can query the database for reservoir attributes to determine whether the selected oil field has an oil reservoir with by-passed oil. If the selected oil field does not have a reservoir with by-passed oil (e.g., “NO”), the method can return to stepto choose the next oil field of the plurality of oil fields. For example, the first oil field (e.g., oil field() of) can be an oil field without by-passed oil. Therefore, the well selection engine can determine that the first oil field does not have by-passed oil in response to querying reservoir attributes from the database and select the second oil field (e.g., oil field() of).

If the selected oil field atdoes have by-passed oil as indicated by the reservoir attributes (e.g., “YES”), the method can proceed towhere the well selection engine determines whether the corresponding reservoir is heterogeneous and the by-passed oil has an API grade above a predetermined API grade threshold. For example, the second oil field can have by-passed oil and be analyzed by the well selection at. However, the second oil field does not have an API grade above the API grade threshold and/or a heterogeneous reservoir (e.g., “NO”), such that the method returns towhere the well selection engine selects a third oil field (e.g., third oil field() of). Accordingly, the third oil field can have a reservoir with by-passed oil (e.g., “YES” at), the reservoir being heterogeneous and having an API grade above the API grade threshold (e.g., “YES” at). In some examples, the third oil field has an API grade above the API grade threshold and the reservoir has a coefficient of variation above a predetermined heterogeneity threshold. Therefore, the method proceeds to, where the well selection engine determines whether the selected oil field has available abandoned wells. At steps-, the well selection engine can make determinations about the oil fields, whereas determinations about available abandoned wells can be made based on the well availability data.

At, if the selected oil field has available abandoned wells according to well availability data (e.g., “YES”), the well selection engine can select the available abandoned well(s) and deploy ISS equipment to the selected available abandoned wells. For example, the third oil field has an available abandoned well (e.g., available abandoned oil wellof) (e.g., “YES”), such that the ISS equipment is deployed by the well selection engine atto the available abandoned well of the third oil field. In some examples, the method can end atonce the ISS equipment has been deployed, such that the well selector tool can terminate or wait until the ISS equipment becomes available. Alternatively, more ISS equipment can be available for deployment or the well selector tool can prioritize oil fields based on the wells available. In response to deploying ISS equipment at, the well selection engine can determine whether there are more oil fields in the plurality of oil fields that have not been analyzed by the well selection engine at. Thus, if the well selection engine determines atthat there are no more oil fields to be analyzed (e.g., “NO”), the well selector tool can pause or stop at. Alternatively, if the well selection engine determines there are more oil fields at(e.g., “YES”), the well selection engine can select the next oil field again at. Thus, a fourth oil field (e.g., oil field()) can be selected atin response to well selection engine deploying ISS equipment atand determining there are more oil fields at.

The fourth oil field can satisfy steps-(e.g., “YES) in response to being selected and return to step. However, the fourth oil field lacks available abandoned wells (e.g., “NO”). In response to determining that the selected oil field does not have available abandoned wells (e.g., “NO”), the well selection engine can determine whether the selected oil field has an available observation or surveillance well (e.g., available observation or surveillance wellof) at. In response to the well selection engine determining atthat the selected oil field has an available observation or surveillance well (e.g. “YES”), the well selection engine can again deploy ISS equipment atto identified available observation or surveillance well of the selected oil field. If the well selection engine determines that the selected oil field does not have an available observation or surveillance well available at(e.g., “NO”), the well selection engine can determine whether any low production producer wells are available at. For example, the well selection engine can deploy ISS equipment atto the observation and surveillance well of the fourth oil field in response to determining that the fourth oil field has an available observation or surveillance well at(e.g., “YES”).

A fifth oil field (e.g., oil field() of) can be selected in a manner similar to the fourth oil field, the fifth oil field satisfying steps-, but lacking an available abandoned, observation, or surveillance well at stepsand. At, the well selection engine can determine whether a low production producer well is available at the selected oil field. Specifically, the well selection engine query well availability data to determine whether the selected oil field includes a low production producer well with a water cut above a predetermined water cut threshold. For example, the fifth oil field can have an available low production producer well with a water cut less than the water cut threshold (e.g., “NO”). Accordingly, the well selection engine can determine whether the fifth oil field has an available injector well at. Alternatively, a sixth oil field can be selected in a manner similar to the fourth and fifth oil fields, the sixth oil field having a low production producer well available with a water cut above the water cut threshold. Therefore, the well selection engine can determine based on well availability data that the sixth oil field has a low production producer well available atwith water cut above the water cut threshold (e.g., “YES”). Therefore, the well selection engine can deploy ISS equipment to the available low production producer well at the sixth oil field at.

The well selection engine atcan determine whether the selected oil field has an available injector well (e.g., available injector wellof) with a wellhead pressure less than a predetermined pressure threshold. For example, the fifth oil field does not have an available injector well (e.g., “NO”) with, such that the well selection engine can select the next oil field atin response to determining there are more oil fields at. The sixth oil field was determined to have an available production producer well with a water cut above the pressure threshold (e.g., YES at), such that ISS equipment is deployed to the sixth oil field atand the sixth oil field is not analyzed for availability of injector wells. A seventh oil field (e.g., oil field() of) can be selected by the well selection engine. The seventh oil field can have an injector well with wellhead pressure that exceeds the pressure threshold (e.g., “NO”). Although the seventh oil field has an available injector well, the well selection engine proceeds toto determine whether there are more oil fields to select atrather than deploy ISS equipment (e.g.,) to the seventh oil field because the seventh oil field's injector well has a wellhead pressure greater than the pressure threshold.

An eighth oil field can be selected at, the eight oil field having an injector well. That is, the eight oil field can satisfy steps-, but lack an available abandoned, observation, surveillance, or low production producer well at stepsand-that is suitable for ISS equipment. Again, atthe well selection engine can determine whether the injector well has a wellhead pressure less than the pressure threshold. For example, the available injector well of the eighth oil field can have a wellhead pressure less than the pressure threshold (e.g., “YES”). However, the well selection engine does not deploy ISS equipment to the injector well of the eighth oil field atin response to determining that the available injector well has a wellhead pressure less than the pressure threshold at(e.g., “YES”). Rather, the well selection engine can determine whether the risk associated with the ISS equipment at the available injector well is acceptable. For example, if the ISS equipment will not have a lifetime greater than a predetermined length or the ISS equipment will sustain damage greater than acceptable predetermined amount of damage over that lifetime (e.g. “NO” at), the well selection engine will determine if there are more oil fields at. A life span of one to two years is typical for economical ISS deployment. The well selection engine can make the determination atabout the risk based on well availability data, or other data about the injector well stored in the database. Alternatively, if the well selection engine determines atthat risks associated with the ISS equipment at the injector well are acceptable (e.g., “YES”), the well selection engine can deploy the ISS equipment to injector well at.

As explained and illustrated in, the well selection engine may not select a given oil fields to deploy ISS equipment to the wells of the given oil field if the given oil field does not have by-passed oil in a heterogeneous reservoir. For example, instead of determining whether the first oil field has available abandoned wells at, the well selection engine can select the next oil field (e.g., second oil field) in response to determining the first oil field does not have by-passed oil. Moreover, the third oil field can have a reservoir with by-passed oil (e.g., “YES” at) with an API grade above a grade threshold (e.g., “YES”), in addition to an available abandoned well (e.g., “YES” at). Further, the third oil field can also have an observation or surveillance well. However, the well selection engine can deploy ISS equipment to the available abandoned well of the third oil field move on to the next oil field because the available abandoned well is preferable to the available observation or surveillance well. That is, more by-passed oil can be extracted with the ISS equipment at the available abandoned well compared to the observation or surveillance wells. Thus, the well selection engine can employ the methodto efficiently extract oil from the plurality of oil fields. Additionally, by considering water cut at low production producer wells and wellhead pressure of injector wells, as well as the risks associated with ISS equipment at the injector wells, the well selection engine can extend the life of ISS equipment. Similarly, by considering the wellhead pressure of injector wells, the safety of technicians operating and deploying the ISS equipment is enhanced.

is a schematic viewof oil movement within formation grainsof a carbonate reservoir in response to a high energy shockwaveproduced by ISS equipment (e.g., ISS equipmentof). Particularly, the viewof oil movement is shown to occur discretely over three time steps, although it is to be understood that the process is in fact continuous. At a first time step, the formation grainscan have a film of oilsurrounding or lodged to the formation grains. The formation grainsare illustrated with a cross-hatched surface and the film of oilis illustrated as a solid line surrounding formation grains.

A second time stepcan occur subsequent to the first time step. At the second time step, a high energy shockwavecan have travelled through a subset of the formation grains. For example, the shockwavecan have moved from left to right. Accordingly, formation grainsto the left of the shockwave in time stephave been passed through by the shockwave and are no longer surrounded by a film of oil. Rather, the shockwavecan have generated oil dropletsfrom the films of oilthat surrounded the formation grainsto left of the shockwave in the first time step. Accordingly, the oil dropletsare positioned near the shockwavein the second time step. That is, the shockwavecan dislodge films of oilfrom formation grainsof a carbonate reservoir and move resultant oil dropletsthrough the carbonate reservoir. Additionally, the shockwavecan increase mobility of the oil, such as the films of oiland the oil droplets, as well as enhance the coalescence of the oil droplets. Formation grainsto the right of the shockwaveat the second time stephave not yet been passed through, such that the surface of these formation grainsare still lodged with a film of oil.

At a third time step, the shockwave has moved through each of the formation grains. Accordingly, films of oilare no longer lodged to each of the formation grainsin response to the shockwave. Instead, each oil the oil dropletshave mobilized through the formation grainswith the shockwave. Accordingly, the shockwavecan be employed to mobilize by-passed oil through formation grainsof an oil reservoir. The shockwavecan be produced by ISS equipment deployed by a well selection engine of a well selector tool (e.g., well selector toolof). The shockwavecan be a low-frequency and high-energy shockwave capable of mobilizing and generating oil dropletsof an oil reservoir. Moreover, deployment of the ISS equipment and application of the shockwaves can be altered based on reservoir attributes (e.g., reservoir attributesof) that can be stored in a database (e.g., databaseof). For example, the reservoir attributes can also include water to oil ratio of the by-passed oil, a distance from the surface, and distance of the by-passed oil from the surface of the well. Thus, these reservoir attributes can be provided by the well selector tool to ISS equipment to alter frequency and magnitude of shockwave(s)used to mobilize oil droplet of the reservoir. Increasing the frequency and power of the shock wave will increase the disruption the interfacial tension thereby lowering capillary trapping and increasing recovery.

In view of the foregoing structural and functional description, those skilled in the art will appreciate that portions of the embodiments may be embodied as a method, data processing system, or computer program product. Accordingly, these portions of the present embodiments may take the form of an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment, or an embodiment combining software and hardware, such as shown and described with respect to the computer system of. Furthermore, portions of the embodiments may be a computer program product on a computer-readable storage medium having computer readable program code on the medium. Any non-transitory, tangible storage media possessing structure may be utilized including, but not limited to, static and dynamic storage devices, volatile and non-volatile memories, hard disks, optical storage devices, and magnetic storage devices, but excludes any medium that is not eligible for patent protection under 35 U.S.C. § 101 (such as a propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals per se). As an example and not by way of limitation, computer-readable storage media may include a semiconductor-based circuit or device or other IC (such, as for example, a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) or an ASIC), a hard disk, an HDD, a hybrid hard drive (HHD), an optical disc, an optical disc drive (ODD), a magneto-optical disc, a magneto-optical drive, a floppy disk, a floppy disk drive (FDD), magnetic tape, a holographic storage medium, a solid-state drive (SSD), a RAM-drive, a SECURE DIGITAL card, a SECURE DIGITAL drive, or another suitable computer-readable storage medium or a combination of two or more of these, where appropriate. A computer-readable non-transitory storage medium may be volatile, nonvolatile, or a combination of volatile and non-volatile, as appropriate.

Certain embodiments have also been described herein with reference to block illustrations of methods, systems, and computer program products. It will be understood that blocks and/or combinations of blocks in the illustrations, as well as methods or steps or acts or processes described herein, can be implemented by a computer program comprising a routine of set instructions stored in a machine-readable storage medium as described herein. These instructions may be provided to one or more processors of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus (or a combination of devices and circuits) to produce a machine, such that the instructions of the machine, when executed by the processor, implement the functions specified in the block or blocks, or in the acts, steps, methods and processes described herein.

These processor-executable instructions may also be stored in computer-readable memory that can direct a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to function in a particular manner, such that the instructions stored in the computer-readable memory result in an article of manufacture including instructions which implement the function specified. The computer program instructions may also be loaded onto a computer or other programmable data processing apparatus to cause a series of operational steps to be performed on the computer or other programmable apparatus to realize a computer implemented process such that the instructions which execute on the computer or other programmable apparatus provide steps for implementing the functions specified in flowchart blocks that may be described herein.

In this regard,illustrates one example of a computer systemthat can be employed to execute one or more embodiments of the present disclosure. Computer systemcan be implemented on one or more general purpose networked computer systems, embedded computer systems, routers, switches, server devices, client devices, various intermediate devices/nodes or standalone computer systems. Additionally, computer systemcan be implemented on various mobile clients such as, for example, a personal digital assistant (PDA), laptop computer, pager, and the like, provided it includes sufficient processing capabilities. For example, the computer system can be the computing platformof.

Computer systemincludes processing unit, system memory, and system busthat couples various system components, including the system memory, to processing unit. System memorycan include volatile (e.g. RAM, DRAM, SDRAM, Double Data Rate (DDR) RAM, etc.) and non-volatile (e.g. Flash, NAND, etc.) memory. Dual microprocessors and other multi-processor architectures also can be used as processing unit. System busmay be any of several types of bus structure including a memory bus or memory controller, a peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus architectures. System memoryincludes read only memory (ROM)and random access memory (RAM). A basic input/output system (BIOS)can reside in ROMcontaining the basic routines that help to transfer information among elements within computer system.

Computer systemcan include a hard disk drive, magnetic disk drive, e.g., to read from or write to removable disk, and an optical disk drive, e.g., for reading CD-ROM diskor to read from or write to other optical media. Hard disk drive, magnetic disk drive, and optical disk driveare connected to system busby a hard disk drive interface, a magnetic disk drive interface, and an optical drive interface, respectively. The drives and associated computer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage of data, data structures, and computer-executable instructions for computer system. Although the description of computer-readable media above refers to a hard disk, a removable magnetic disk and a CD, other types of media that are readable by a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, digital video disks and the like, in a variety of forms, may also be used in the operating environment; further, any such media may contain computer-executable instructions for implementing one or more parts of embodiments shown and described herein.

A number of program modules may be stored in drives and RAM, including operating system, one or more application programs, other program modules, and program data. In some examples, the application programscan include a well selector tool (e.g., well selector toolof) and well selection engine (e.g., well selection engineof), as well as a database (e.g., databaseof) storing well availability data (e.g., well availability dataof) and reservoir attributes(e.g., reservoir attributesof). Further, the program datacan include selected oil fields (e.g., oil fieldsof), selected wells (e.g., wellsof) of the oil fields, instructions for deployment of ISS equipment (e.g., ISS equipmentof). The application programsand program datacan include functions and methods programmed to deploy ISS equipment to extract by-passed oil from suitable reservoirs of oil fields, such as shown and described herein.

A user may enter commands and information into computer systemthrough one or more input devices, such as a pointing device (e.g., a mouse, touch screen), keyboard, microphone, joystick, game pad, scanner, and the like. For instance, the user can employ input deviceto edit or modify inputs to the well selection engine or well selector tool, such as identification of a plurality of oil fields and wells for analysis, well availability data, and reservoir attributes. These and other input devicesare often connected to processing unitthrough a corresponding port interfacethat is coupled to the system bus, but may be connected by other interfaces, such as a parallel port, serial port, or universal serial bus (USB). One or more output devices(e.g., display, a monitor, printer, projector, or other type of displaying device) is also connected to system busvia interface, such as a video adapter.