Sequential short-term optimization of gas lift using linear programming: A case study of

a mature oil field in Russia

The gas lift is a proven enhanced oil recovery method for production wells with a high water-
cut or a low gas oil ratio. The gas lift system injects compressed gas into the annulus of a
production well in order to facilitate the lifting of well fluid in the tubing. Presently, the most
accurate gas lift analysis can be accomplished via high-fidelity multiphase simulations using
high-performance computing environments. Thus, the gas lift performance has been
optimized by coupling numerical simulations and linear programming, which is useful for
solving large and complicated industrial problems. For example, claimed that the optimal
design and operation of gas lifting was cost-effective for improving the profits of an oil field.

Optimized a gas lift system for long-term reservoir simulations using linear programming. To
save the computational costs of full-physics reservoir simulation, proxy-based gas lift
analyses have also been investigated. Proposed a hybrid optimization technique by combining
a response surface model and a hybrid heuristic-gradient algorithm for automated gas lift
optimization in an oil field.

Proposed a diagnostic approach to the selection of wells for gas lift application and
necessitate the design of a gas lift schedule that can flexibly vary the gas lifting rate at each
well level in order to maximize the asset value (e.g., total oil production or NPV) at the field
level. A well-designed long-term optimization resulted in a higher expected NPV than a
sequential short-term optimization with applications to two synthetic fields (including the
Brugge field) under waterflooding. The direct optimization of long-term engagement is a
non-trivial matter in reality because the field operating conditions change over time and are
difficult to forecast precisely in most cases.

As an alternative, sequential performance of short-term optimization along with high-

resolution reservoir simulation could help provide field operators with a reasonable approach
to the flexible management of uncertainty in oil and gas fields. The use of sequential short-
term gas-list optimization for improving the hydrocarbon returns at the same expenditure.
The gas lifting schedule over the total production period is determined by performing the gas-
lifting optimization on a regular sequential basis. Linear programming is executed to
optimally allocate the lifting gas rates to producers under the constraint of the total volume of
lifting gas available in the target field.
A gas lift is an artificial lift that injects compressed gas into a production well in order to
facilitate hydrocarbon production. The lifting gas is conveyed down the annulus between the
inner tubing and the outer casing to enter the tubing via a series of gas-lift valve as shown
schematically in Figure 1. The gas is then mixed with the well fluids in the tubing, thus
decreasing the density of the well fluids,
generating gas bubbles to scrub the liquid,
and reducing the hydrostatic pressure of the
fluid column. The decrease in density
reduces the pressure drop between the
completion and the tubing head, Enabling
the well to produce a larger volume of
fluids for the same bottom hole pressure or
to produce the same volume of fluids at a
higher bottom hole pressure. The gas lift
system consists of several valves to be
opened according to the compressed gas
pressure and the fluid pressure in the
wellbore.

Figure 1: Schematic diagram of a gas lift

system for an oil production well.

When using the gas lift, the total oil

production rate (Qo) of the field utilised their results for oilfield development and operations
planning. As the requisite gas lifting rate for
maximizing the asset value of an oil field might be
different from that required for maximizing oil
production, a techno-economic analysis is an essential
factor in evaluation for gas life performance. Because
the total volume of lifting gas depends on the gas
volume produced from or delivered to the field, the
gas lift optimisation study must consider capacity
constraints such as the maximum volume of the lifting
gas.
Figure 2: The efficiency curve of the gas lift system

The method for determining the gas lifting rate based on the relationship between the gas
lifting and oil production rates for an individual well is presented in Figure 2. The oil
production rate (solid red curve) is seen to initially increase to a maximum value and the
decrease with increasing gas lifting rate. The oil production rate (solid red curve) is seen to
initially increase to maximum value and then decrease, with increasing gas lifting rate.

Each well was allocated a

different start-up date and
each infill well produced oil
via the gas lift procedure
thereafter. Thus, an infill well
was added to the well group
for the gas lifting
optimization at the time when
it was scheduled to be opened
up for production according
to the drilling schedule. Based
on the field production history
data, the minimum economic
rate of change was set to 0.1
MSTB/MMSCFD.As an
economic criterion, any
producer was shut-in if its
water-cut exceeded 0.95.
Figure 3: A performance
comparison of the various well types in the Base case

Including the oil production rate at each well, the number of infill wells, the infill drilling
schedule, and the production start date of each well, are undisclosed due to confidentiality
issues, whereas the gas lifting rate data are open. For the present case study, it is assumed that
each specific well possesses sufficient gas lifting capacity at the identified optimal gas lifting
rate for that well. If the sum of gas lifting rates exceeds the total lifting capacity, the surplus
can be deducted from the well having the lowest gas lifting efficiency.

In this study, a sequential short-term optimization workflow was proposed to determine the
optimal gas lifting schedule under several operational constraints. To overcome the
computational drawbacks, linear programming was performed and the gas lifting injection
rates of infill production wells were allocated within each time interval. The proposed
workflow was applied to a mature oil field in Russia in order to demonstrate its effectiveness
as a practical method for the optimization of the gas lifting system. Under the specified
constraints, the estimated ultimate recovery of the field was improved by 14%, although
some types of well yielded slightly lower ultimate oil recoveries compared to the Base case
when constant gas lift injection was applied. Nevertheless, this loss was compensated for by
the significant increase in the amount of oil obtained from other types of well.