Design and Implementation of a Digital Twin for Live Petroleum Production Optimization
in a Middle east oilfield , this study included the approach to simulating 50 wells in less than two weeks ’ time .
The work presented in the current paper takes a step further any creates a live-connection between field IIOT sensor data and a cloud-based simulation system that can generate 60,000 + simulations per day taking input from field data . This coupling between the physical and virtual data represents a key component of the digital twin . An effective digital twin is expected to represent and mimic a physical system . Hence , the simulation scheme described in this paper is closely connected to the physical data to maintain relevance .
The simulation section in this paper covers the following topics :
● Simulation Schematic
● Simulation Input
● Simulation Output
Simulation Schematic :
A commercial transient physics-based simulation software was employed to represent the fluid flow from the oil and gas reservoir through wellbore and the surface facilities that include the separation system and pipelines in order to transport fluids .
Figure 10 represents the process flow diagram of the physical setup and its corresponding simulation setup . Well and surface facilities schematics may vary among operators , fields , even between well pads . To generate a new exact simulation schematic for every variation in physical process flow is a very time-intensive process . Hence , for templatization purposes , the simulation scheme has been simplified to include only those components that are relevant to the objective . For example : in the process flow diagram in Figure 10 , there are multiple tanks per fluid , this is reduced to a single tank per fluid in the simulation schematic since the back pressure created by the downstream tanks is negligible .
It is to be noted that the templatization process can in some cases also add complexity to the system . For instance , the process flow diagram in Figure 10 represents a single well system with no connections to other wells . However , the corresponding simulation schematic includes a gas source coming from other wells downstream of the separator . This complexity has been included to make the simulation template a general one that can be utilized on systems with gas lines commingling from multiple wells . In the case of a single well system , the value of this parameter is set to zero .
- 48 - March 2021