Patent ID: 8532968

Claim:
A method of improving production of a mature gas or oil field, said field comprising a plurality of existing wells, said method comprising: (a) providing a field simulator capable of predicting a production of said field, well by well, in function of a given scenario, a scenario being a set of data comprising production parameters of the existing wells and, the case may be, location and production parameters of one or more new wells, (b) determining drainage areas of said existing wells using the field simulator, determining locations of candidate new wells, each set of wells comprising the existing wells and new wells selected amongst the candidate new wells, (c) determining locations of candidate new wells such that drainage areas of said candidate new wells, determined using the field simulator, do not overlap with the drainage areas of the existing wells, (d) determining a plurality of sets of wells, each set of wells comprising the existing wells and new wells selected amongst the candidate new wells, (e) determining for each set of wells, the value of a gain function, which depends on the field production, (f) selecting the set of wells that optimizes the value of the gain function, and (g) drilling the set of wells so selected.