Subsea field layout optimization (Part I) – directional well trajectory planning based on 3D Dubins Curve

Directional well trajectory planning, which includes the optimization of the drilling site location and the trajectory between the drilling site to the completion interval, plays an important role in reducing subsea field development cost. The traditional well trajectory planning methods are based o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of petroleum science & engineering 2022-01, Vol.208, p.109450, Article 109450
Main Authors: Liu, Haoge, Gjersvik, Tor Berge, Faanes, Audun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3D dubins curve
Optimization
Well path
Well profile
Well trajectory
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Summary:Directional well trajectory planning, which includes the optimization of the drilling site location and the trajectory between the drilling site to the completion interval, plays an important role in reducing subsea field development cost. The traditional well trajectory planning methods are based on the projected 2D profile of the wellbore trajectory with empirical knowledge or trial-and-error method to select a proper drilling site. In this study, we propose a new efficient optimization method based on the 3D Dubins curve, which has been widely used in autopilot for path planning but has never been mentioned in drilling industry. In short, we use gradient descent method to find the best drilling site location while adopting the 3D Dubins curve as the optimal wellbore trajectory to reach each completion interval so that the “1-site-n-wells” problem can be easily solved. Abundant case studies including both mathematically representative cases and the real practical field cases are conducted to demonstrate the feasibility and efficiency of our method. Wider application of our method for more complex situations are also discussed. This work is the first of a series of papers which systematically introduce an efficient method for subsea field layout optimization to minimize the development cost. •It is the first time introducing the Dubins curve method into well trajectory design.•The original 2D Dubins curve is extended into 3D drilling scenario.•The “1-site-n-wells” optimization problem is solved efficiently.•This is a basic module for the more complex subsea field layout optimization problem.
ISSN:0920-4105
1873-4715
DOI:10.1016/j.petrol.2021.109450