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Introduction

The Interval Control Valves (ICVs), also known as flow control valves, have been widely used to regulate flow of fluids in producers and injectors, effectively managing reservoir drainage and improving recovery throughout the field's lifespan. Recent advancements in hardware have made ICVs more practical and intelligent, increasing number of operations and changing their configuration more frequently.

ICV Control is a script implemented inside reservoir simulation that automates the operation of ICVs (Interval Control Valves and sliding sleeves) during a reservoir simulation based on predefined control criteria. The script provides functionality to decide on how to operate the ICVs. It creates new schedule files containing control criteria logic which is pre-defined by the user that will trigger opening/closing of the ICVs.

The motivaton comes from there is no available method to automate ICV operation in reservoir simulation and to evaluate the business case of ICVs installation and operation. Many studies repeated efforts of trial and error which resulted in an exhaustive and repetitive work. Moreover, there was no workflow for running consistent ICV operation over an ensemble of reservoir models. This script has been developed to automatically incorporate ICV operations in dynamic reservoir simulations to follow certain control-criteria defined by the user or engineers.

The script is dependent on the criteria specified such as target parameters for control, with their defined values. The method relies on rule-based control, meaning that if the target operating criteria is fulfilled but yet not met the target, the ICV opening will change stepwise until acceptance. Currently, ICV Control acts within the ACTIONX functionality of Eclipse. This keyword in Eclipse reservoir simulation provides an if-else logic, implementing the reactive control in the ICV Control.

Applications​

ICV Control enables reservoir and production engineers, as domain experts, to establish predefined control criteria tailored to the characteristics of a particular field. The script operates on a field/well specific basis, using the control criteria to embed a set of logic statements into the simulation schedule files to operate the ICVs according to the control criteria.

The current implementations covers such case of:

  • Controlling multi-zone WAG and water injection across an ensemble.
  • Controlling GOR in multi-lateral wells.
  • Controlling producer-injector interference by balancing water injection across zones and limiting the water cut in the producers and keeping injection stable.
  • Branch control on top of AICD installation on multi-laterals.
  • Zonal control for long basement ICV operations to reduce water-cut.
  • Commingle production to prevent cross flow and screen erosion due to high velocity.
  • Smart well injectors.