Well placement optimization: A survey with special focus on application for gas/gas-condensate reservoirs

Well placement within a reservoir is a challenging step in the reservoir development process. Determining the optimal well location is a complex problem involving many factors including geological uncertainty, reservoir and fluid properties, economic costs, and technical ability. Often, broad possibilities and constraints on computational resources limit the scenarios that can be considered. The use of engineering judgment to solve this complex and nonlinear problem may not be sufficient. The use of automatic well placement optimization as an aiding tool has recently gained interest in the petroleum industry and in academia. This paper surveys the literature dealing with well placement optimization. The areas considered include: optimization algorithm, reservoir response model, approach to handle uncertainty, and a special section on well placement optimization in gas/gas-condensate fields. Major drawbacks of current methods and areas of possible future work are identified.