Petroleum Science and Technology

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A simple approach for screening enhanced

oil recovery methods: Application of artificial
intelligence

Mohammad Ali Ahmadi & Alireza Bahadori

To cite this article: Mohammad Ali Ahmadi & Alireza Bahadori (2016) A simple approach for
screening enhanced oil recovery methods: Application of artificial intelligence, Petroleum
Science and Technology, 34:23, 1887-1893

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10916466.2016.1233247

Published online: 08 Dec 2016.

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PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
, VOL. , NO. , –
http://dx.doi.org/./..

A simple approach for screening enhanced oil recovery methods:

Application of artificial intelligence
Mohammad Ali Ahmadia and Alireza Bahadorib,c
a
Department of Petroleum Engineering, Ahwaz Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology,
Ahwaz, Iran; b School of Environment, Science & Engineering, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW, Australia;
c
Australian Oil and Gas Services, Pty Ltd, Lismore, NSW, Australia

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
The main goal of the present article is to propose a machine learning model Artificial neural network;
which was constructed by merging the real worldwide enhanced oil recov- enhanced oil recovery; fuzzy
ery (EOR) field experiences. In this regard, the aforementioned expert system logic; genetic algorithm;
screening; modeling
is based on fuzzy C clustering approach in order to rank the appropriate EOR
methods for further evaluation from environmental and economic viewpoints.
The results show that fuzzy C clustering approach can be successful in the
determination of appropriate EOR method by providing adequate data face
to the approach evolved. Consequently, this expert system can be hybridized
with commercial reservoir simulators for EOR screening purposes especially in
Iranian oil and gas sector.

1. Introduction
Numerous numbers of research papers have been put forward to propose a technical guide for relevant
experts to select and implement an appropriate method of EOR compatible with a particular type of a
reservoir with unique oil and rock properties. Taber and Martin (1983) through gaining from existing
data about the issue of EOR screening suggested a group of tabulated criteria based on the graphical tech-
niques. The first attempts about using artificial intelligence (AI)-based methods to select a proper EOR
method is known through the research done by Guerillot (1983) in which logical descriptions about
selection of a special EOR technique are generated based on the fuzzy logic. Advantages of using the
computer-based programs to select some practical techniques in terms of economic issues and research
have initially been taken by Parkinson et al. (1994). Real reservoir data were used by Taber et al. (1997) to
put forward some standards for most of EOR methods through considering EOR mechanisms. Method-
ology of space reduction and some collected data from EOR screening projects all over the world were
coupled by Alvarado et al. (2002) to perform the existence of correlations in parameter variations. With
the arise of modern computers, using AI-based methods to run engineering projects of prediction like
the EOR screening has greatly drawn attentions. Even though there is a history of decades about using
AI-based methods in both chemical and petroleum engineering, applications of Bayesian belief networks
in the referred fields are new and interesting. Some of the relevant works are as follows: hybrid of artificial
neural networks (ANNs) with genetic algorithm (GA) to estimate reservoir permeability (Morooka et al.,
2001) as well as other research about the implementation of GA to approximation of other parameters
such as porosity and recovery factor (Greffioz et al., 1993; Romero and Carter, 2001). Petroleum explo-
ration is the other filed where AI-based methods have been used in. In fact, fracture types and pressure

CONTACT Alireza Bahadori alireza.bahadori@scu.edu.au; Alireza.bahadori@AustralianOilGas.com.au Department of

Petroleum Engineering, Ahwaz Faculty of Petroleum Engineering, Petroleum University of Technology, Ahwaz, Iran.
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/lpet.
©  Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
 1888
M. A. AHMADI AND A. BAHADORI

Table . Coordination of each cluster center.

Steam Hot water Combustion CO Mis. CO Immis. HC Mis. HC Immis. N Mis. N Immis. Chemical Microbial

Code           
Area, acres ,. ,. . . ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,
Porosity, % . . . . . . . . . . 
Permeability, md . ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. . ,. ,. ,. 
Depth, ft ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. ,. 
Gravity, API . . . . . . . . . . 
Viscosity, cp . . . ,. ,. ,. . ,. ,. ,. ,,
Temperature, F . . . . . . . . . . 
Soi . . . . . . . . . . 
 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 1889

Figure . The scatter distribution of data in final clusters versus their corresponding initial clusters.

distribution in reservoir can numerically be characterized by the introduction of geo and petro-physical
data to a typical ANN (Aminzadeh, 2005). Also, different sorts of ANN have been conducted to deter-
mine petroleum physical properties based on correlating some thermodynamical parameters such as
natural boiling point, pressure, and temperature (Zendehboudi et al., 2014). More information about
applications of AI-based methods in different aspects of reservoir characterization and flow assurance
can be found in research done by Ahmadi et al. (Ahmadi, 2011, 2012; Ahmadi and Golshadi, 2012;
Ahmadi and Shadizadeh, 2012; Fazeli et al., 2013; Ahmadi et al., 2013a, 2013b; Zendehboudi et al., 2012,
2013a, 2013b; Ahmadi et al., 2014a,b,c; Ahmadi and Ebadi, 2014).

2. Data collection
Data gathered from doing literature review are mainly categorized into three sets which are: (1) data gen-
erated from running different experimental procedures to check the applicability of different EOR meth-
ods by consideration of the connected PVT and rock properties of the supposed reservoir. (2) Gaining
from reservoir commercial simulators to observe the behavior of the target petroleum reservoir under
different EOR methods has caused generation of some data. (3) There is no doubt that the most trust-
worthy types of data are those which have been generated based on fruitful EOR projects in which the

Figure . Comparison between generated results and their initial corresponding clusters.
1890 M. A. AHMADI AND A. BAHADORI

Figure . The abundance of initial and generated values.

technical and economical capabilities of the implemented method have been proved. Indisputably, the
data of the third group are the best sources to develop AI-based solutions. A quite few of EOR screening
criteria in forms of tables, which have considered both rock and fluid properties of the oil reservoir, have
been proposed in previous literatures. The first table which introduces a special sort of EOR screening
technique which is based on the ranges of the given data has been proposed by Taber and Martin (1983).
The consequent modifications due to usages of new data series and regarding more economical stan-
dards were also done by Taber once again (Taber et al., 1997). The unique tables for some special EOR
methods like miscible CO2 flooding have also been reported by some researchers (Carcoana, 1982; Klins,
1984). The other study (Picha, 2007) performed the refreshed tables of EOR screening for four different
methods which have been developed based on the importance of CO2 flooding techniques and also the
enhanced heavy oil production in recent years. The ongoing study will be developed based on the gath-
ered data extracted from a series of global EOR studies on field-scale successful EOR projects all over
the world (worldwide EOR survey, 1996, 1998, 2002, 2004, 2006). The collected data are treated with
data mining techniques for the assortment of the most suitable series in order to produce the greatest
outcomes in training step.

3. Fuzzy C-means clustering

Fuzzy C-means (FCM) permits one piece of data to belong to two or more clusters. This technique which
was initially established by Dunn in 1971 and subsequently upgraded by Bezdek in 1981 is regularly used
in operation of pattern recognition (Izakian and Abraham, 2011 ; Izakian and Pedrycz, 2014). In terms
of technical language, the FCM is normally run based on the minimization of the following objective
function:

N 
C
Jm = i j xi − Zi  ,
um 1 ≤ m < ∞. (1)
i=1 j=1

The above function is effectively facilitated by taking m as a real number greater than one. In fact,
m is a scalar parameter of weighting exponent and governs the fuzziness of the consequential clusters.
The membership degree of each record, xi , which belongs to an n-dimensional measured dataset, to jth
cluster is determined by ui j . Each cluster is represented by a center which is the Z j as an n-dimensional
center of the cluster, and  ∗  is generally a norm expressing the similarity between any measured data
and the center, in this study, it has been decided to gain from Euclidian distance from object xi to the
cluster center Z j . It must be underlined that in each FCM, the number of clusters must be clarified by
the designer (Peters et al., 2013; Izakian and Pedrycz, 2014; Zeng et al., 2014).
 PETROLEUM SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 1891

Figure . The numerical distribution of data within initial (a) and final (b) clusters.
1892 M. A. AHMADI AND A. BAHADORI

Fuzzy partitioning is implemented through running a sort of iterati optimization of the objective
function presented previously. The procedure is followed by upting the membership degrees and cluster
centers so that:
N m
i=1 ui j .xi
Z j = N m (2)
i=1 ui j

And
1
ui j =  2 .
 m−1 (3)
C xi −Z j 
k=1 xi −Zk 

And in more detail, the following algorithm can be taken as a great heme to follow this clustering
technique (Izakian and Abraham, 2011).
1. Through selecting m by regarding the fact of m>1 initialize membership function values µi j so
that i = 1, 2, . . . , n; j = 1, 2, . . . , C.
2. Based on Eq. [2], centers of clusters, Z j . and j = 1, 2, . . . , C, must be computed.
3. Computing the objective function, Euclidian distance in this special case, is the next step.
4. Equation [3] is applied to update the membership function.
5. Converging of data is examined, unless the steps are repeated from level 2.

4. Results and discussions

The relevant operation of FCM was run, and after 100 iterations the centers were extracted as depicted
in Table 1. After determination of the most optimized centers, data were classified once again and the
subsequent results have been shown in Figure 1. Furthermore, the final results have been compared with
their initial values based on their corresponding indexes (see Figure 2). In addition, the abundance of
data in two stages of initial and final clusters has been performed in terms of percentages in Figure 3
where it can be observed that the generated results are very similar to the initial values and in fact follow
the same trend. Besides, the distribution of data in both initial and final stages has been graphically
depicted in Figure 4 according to the number of data relies in each cluster.

5. Conclusions
r It can be inferred that the constructed fuzzy C clustering is sufficient to be employed on the other
data samples, if their physical concepts and mathematical limitations are the same as the samples
employed in the present article.
r The cheap and fast rate algorithm of computation are the highlighted characteristics of the expert
model proposed in this article.
r The expert system developed in this article can be coupled with common commercial reservoir
simulators for EOR screening purposes owing to its precision and accuracy.

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