Enersoft padTOOLS Plugin for Petrel

Exploiting a petroleum reservoir by mean of steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) present a number of unique challenges. Not least among these is determining the placement of surface pads (where the horizontal wells are drilled from) and drainage areas (the portion of the subsurface from which petroleum will be drained. The locations of surface pads are constrained by the positions of features such as rivers, lakes, roads, rail lines, power lines, pipe lines among many others. In placing drainage areas it is desirable to be in a location where the reservoir is thick, the base of the reservoir is relatively flat, there is no bottom or top water or gas to ‘steal’ the steam, etc. Jointly considering constraints at both the surface and subsurface for one drainage area is challenge enough. Consider that a reservoir may require many drainage areas and surface pads and the challenge becomes even greater.
To assist in answering this challenge enerSOFT has developed a Petrel plugin which optimizes the locations of the drainage areas and surface pads while considering all of the necessary constraints. This optimization proceeds in two steps: a map of allowable surface locations is generated, then the locations of the drainage areas and surface pads is determined.