Developing a Hybrid Data-Driven, Mechanistic Virtual Flow Meter - a Case Study

Virtual flow meters, mathematical models predicting production flow rates in petroleum assets, are useful aids in production monitoring and optimization. Mechanistic models based on first-principles are most common, however, data-driven models exploiting patterns in measurements are gaining popularity. This research investigates a hybrid modeling approach, utilizing techniques from both the aforementioned areas of expertise, to model a well production choke. The choke is represented with a simplified set of first-principle equations and a neural network to estimate the valve flow coefficient. Historical production data from the petroleum platform Edvard Grieg is used for model validation. Additionally, a mechanistic and a data-driven model are constructed for comparison of performance. A practical framework for development of models with varying degree of hybridity and stochastic optimization of its parameters is established. Results of the hybrid model performance are promising albeit with considerable room for improvements

Modelling oil and gas flow rate through chokes: A critical review of extant models

Oil and gas metering is primarily used as the basis for evaluating the economic viability of oil wells. Owing to the economic implications of oil and gas metering, the subject of oil and gas flow rate measurement has witnessed a sustained interest by the oil and gas community and the academia. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, despite the growing number of published articles on this subject, there is yet no comprehensive critical review on it. The objective of this paper is to provide a broad overview of models and modelling techniques applied to the estimation of oil and gas flow rate through chokes while also critically evaluating them. For the sake of simplicity and ease of reference, the outcomes of the review are presented in tables in an integrated and concise manner. The articles for this review were extracted from many subject areas. For the theoretical pieces related to oil and gas flow rate in general, the authors relied heavily upon several key drilling fluid texts. For operational and field studies, the authors relied on conference proceedings from the society of petroleum engineers. These sources were supplemented with articles in peer reviewed journals in order to contextualize the subject in terms of current practices. This review is interspersed with critiques of the models while the areas requiring improvement were also outlined. Findings from the bibliometric analysis indicate that there is no universal model for all flow situations despite the huge efforts in this direction. Furthermore, a broad survey of literature on recent flow models reveals that researchers are gravitating towards the field of artificial intelligence due to the tremendous promises it offers. This review constitutes the first critical compilation on a broad range of models applied to predicting oil and gas flow rates through chokes