Ramirez W.F. Application of Optimal Control Theory to Enhanced Oil Recovery

Elsevier, 1987. — vii, 243 p. — (Developments in Petroleum Science, 21). — ISBN: 0-444-42835-6.In recent years, enhanced oil recovery techniques have received much attention in the oil industry. Enhanced oil recovery methods can be divided into three major categories: thermal processes which include steam flooding, steam stimulation, and in-situ combustion; chemical processes which include surfactant-polymer injection, polymer flooding, and caustic flooding; and miscible displacement processes which include miscible hydrocarbon displacement, carbon dioxide injection of large amounts of rather expensive fluids into oil bearing reservoir formations. Commercial application of any enhanced oil recovery process relies upon economic projections that show a decent return on the investment. Because of high chemical costs, it is important to optimize enhanced oil recovery processes to provide the greatest recovery at the lowest chemical injection cost.
The aim of this book is to develop an optimal control theory for the determination of operating strategies that maximize the economic attractiveness of enhanced oil recovery processes. The determination of optimal control histories or operating strategies is one of the key elements in the successful usage of new enhanced oil recovery techniques. The information contained in the book will therefore be both interesting and useful to all those working in petroleum engineering, petroleum management and chemical engineering.Enhanced oil recovery.Need for Energy.
Current Oil Production Methods.
Efficiency of Present Production Techniques.
Unrecoverable Oil.
Enhanced Oil Recovery Techniques.
The Price of Oil.
Production Potential From Enhanced Oil Recovery Methods.
Field Experience.
Evaluating Economic Potential.
Optimal control theory.Fundamental Concepts.
Integral Functionals of a Single Variable.
Constrained Extrema.
An Optimal Control Problem.
Pontryagin's Maximum Principle.
Necessary Conditions for Distributed Parameter Systems.
Surfactant flooding optimization of linear core experiments.Mathematical Modeling.
Numerical Solution Technique.
Berea Core Results.
Optimal Injection Strategies.
Computational Procedure.
Costate Equations.
Optimization Results.
The discrete maximum principle.Necessary Conditions for Explicit Models.
Comparison of the Discrete and Continuous Maximum Principles.
Necessary Conditions for Implicit Models.
One-dimensional optimization of the micellar/polymer EOR process.Mathematical Model.
Numerical Solution.
Simulation of the Sloss Experiment.
Optimal Injection Strategies.
Computational Procedure.
Computation of the Costate Coefficients.
Optimization Results.
Two-dimensional optimization of the micellar/polymer process.Streamtube Modeling.
Optimal Injection Strategies.
Computational Procedures.
Sloss Field Simulation.
Optimization Results.
Two-dimensional optimization of the carbon dioxide EOR process.Mathematical Model.
Initial and Boundary Conditions.
Numerical Solution.
Simulation Results.
Optimal Injection Strategies.
Computational Procedure.
Optimization Results.
Summation.
Enhanced Oil Recovery Optimization.
History Matching.
Future Problems.