Patent ID: 7818071

Claim:
A method for controlling and optimizing production operations in clusters of oil and/or gas production wells and facilities, which are equipped with production, pressure, temperature, vibration, flow, seismic and/or other sensors that generate raw reservoir, production and/or production equipment performance data, the method comprising: a) collecting said raw data in a number of central data surveillance centers; b) processing, monitoring and/or analyzing trends in said collected raw data by at least one central expert support team and/or system, which converts these data and/or trends into actionable component data and total system performance data; c) transferring said actionable component data to at least one regional asset operation control center; d) transferring said actionable total system performance data to at least one regional total production optimization center, in which said actionable total system performance data and trends are interpreted, analysed and converted into actionable total asset control data that are subsequently transferred to at least one regional control center; and e) optimizing and/or controlling production of said clusters by action taken in at least one regional asset operation control center, said optimization and/or controlling being based on the actionable component data and the actionable total asset control data; wherein the number of central data surveillance centers is more than three times smaller than the number of regional asset operation control centers and/or the number of regional total production optimization centers.