How can you determine the optimal location for a petroleum well?

In addition to the mentioned points, the reservoir pressure distribution is a key for selecting the well location in the case of the development field. For the exploration well, the structure and its trap are playing the main drive for the optimal location selection.

Estimating new well performance is an interesting topic. It can be done with a variety of methods, but regardless of the chosen method, a comparison with existing wells performance is a must do. An underlying principle suggests that the best wells are typically drilled first. Conversely, if a new well is anticipated to outperform offset wells, explanations are warranted. This is usually supported on completion geometry (horizontal/slant vs. vertical offsets), technology applications (stimulation, PLT, water shut-off, permanent downhole monitoring, smart completion), different surface set up that lead to improved flow assurance (lower backpressure), or in the reassessment of the target area based on recent (seismic) information, among others

First; are you drilling a petroleum well, or an all wel? If you’re drilling a “petroleum well;” people are laughing at you. Your friends might do it to your face; but everyone's laughing. If you’re driving a beat up 50 year old pickup truck and drilling an “all wel;” people are going to listen. Anyone in the all bis-nis will know the difference. Seems a robot can’t tell.

The classic answer would be "it depends* -on the type of well (developmental, exploratory, vertical vs. horizontal), the type of formation, the type of reservoir, the pressure boundaries, use of hydraulic fracturing or other stimulation procedures, planning this as a fleet of wells or a single well. You can easily see how this is spiraling down a rabbit hole. I'd probably say my first question would be is this a well in a classic reservoir or an unconventional reservoir and if unconventional, what kind of unconventional reservoir is this?

Acquiring and processing data for selecting an optimal well location in an oil and gas field is essential due to: 1. Risk Reduction: Minimizes the chances of costly drilling failures by understanding geological and potential hazards. 2. Resource Optimization: Identifies the best locations for maximum oil and gas recovery, enhancing resource efficiency. 3. Environmental Safety: Enables planning to minimize ecological impact and ensure compliance with environmental regulations. 4. Economic Viability: Assesses potential returns from drilling sites to guide investment decisions. 5. Regulatory Compliance: Ensures all operations meet legal and safety standards, avoiding fines and operational disruptions.

Use old cuttings to analyze geochemistry. This opens the door to modern well designs in fields that were deemed non-commercial in the past.

If you’re bound and determined to drill your petroleum well; there’s probably not much anyone can tell you that will help. You’ve already made your mind up how things will go; and no amount of reason or reality will shift your decision.

Using the seismic attributes, inversion products and neural net volumes we can see between the wells what is occurring and use this to help plan the lateral. We also need to the geologist and integrate their work into ours especially their mapping to make sure it makes sense. If we can, integrate the petrophysics into our analysis as well especially any information about geomechanics. The goal of integrating this data together is to reduce the risk. If there are any questions they should be brought up and discussed before the presentation to management. Our disciplines interlay and we should have some understanding of what the others do on the team and the type of information they require.

Make a first principles production forecasts. Although it sounds counterintuitive, nature is more predictable than human activities. Many times, something we do in well construction may bring unpredictable outcome and that is the most valuable learning from a new drill.

Your next step was probably a rationalization of how all the people before you didn’t have the insight you do. No amount of data is going to change your mind; so data is just a bother.

When doing working up a well location there are many things to consider. The geoscience needs to be right. This involves using the seismic and looking for indicators of anomalies in the data. There are few DHIs so when we see an AVO anomaly or something in the inversion we need to work it up. We also need to map it geologically. If we have a Geomodel we can use that to design the horizontals. After we have determined that we need to ensure pipeline capacity. If the pipeline is too full we may not be able to drill the well. After we determine the infrastructure we need to look at GIS and place the rig based upon government regulations. We need to draw up a drilling program and rank them based upon the data. All this takes time.

It is good idea to include natural fractures and dynamic indicators in ranking. Refs: URTeC: 2154607 Natural Fracture Detection, Characterization and Modeling in a Tight Oil Carbonate Resource Enables thorough Multi-disciplinary Integration, Targeted Development and Enhanced Overall Resource Performance SPE-179952-MS Geologic and Dynamic Indicators Offering a Reliable Technology Paradigm to Reserve and Resource Estimation in Unconventional Oil Plays.

Evaluations and risk mean nothing to someone with your insight and determination. You’ve made it this far; why bother with evaluations. Forge ahead!

We can also looking for Original Oil In Place OOIP : this term refers to the total quantity of crude oil that is initially found in a reservoir before any extraction begins. It includes both the recoverable and unrecoverable portions of oil.

The well location, or pad offers a lot of synergies if it is master planned for many wells or facilities. That minimizes overall environmental impact, costs, pipelines, power and communications. Road or rail access, terrain and storage facilities play a big role in selecting multi well pad locations. Planning and regulatory preparation are needed, in other words, ample advance timing.

The following steps can be taken to find the optimal location of Petroleum well and optimise its location: 1. Use seismic imaging techniques to create a detailed subsurface map to locate potential traps, faults, and structures that may contain oil and gas reservoirs. 2.Consider using reservoir simulation software to model reservoir behavior and predict hydrocarbon, areas of remaining oil, "sweet spots". 3. Analyze well logs from nearby wells to determine rock properties and hydrocarbon content in the area, helping in identifying potential drilling locations. 4.Evaluate the economic viability of drilling in specific areas by considering drilling costs, production costs, and potential reserves to select locations with favorable returns.

This is usually the tricky part where the low-cost-bid survey team goes and puts a stick in the ground. You’d go check to see it’s in the right place; but don’t want to get your car dirty, and maps are so tedious. - Now the actual mineral owner sits and waits for you to drill them a well. They’ll show up once it’s drilled and the logs are run. They might wait till you run casing; but they’ll show up. Congratulations; you just drilled your petroleum well; for someone else. Enjoy- The story you’ve just read is true. The names have been removed to protect the innocent, and the guilty.

Two types of Wells 1. Development Well In this case, best practice for optimal well location is after the integration of static (G&G) and dynamic model (history match). Based on that model we can find the best place for well location to get the remaining potential if the well is economically viable. 2. Exploration Well Mianly depends on the type of Exploration category. In known area of geology, best practice for optimal well location is CCRS maps. The area where all the good properties of these maps are overlapping on each other would be the best optimal well location. 3.The quick way to find the optimal well location, the area where you have the best reservoir quality/properties and structural crest in known play/petroleum system.

You can’t determine an optimum well location. If it is optimum (whatever that means) or a very productive well, you just very lucky.