Alternative methodology to avoid convergence problems caused for

WELDRAW keyword.

When VFP tables are missing for any reason, one of the alternative to set
controls for producing wells during prediction runs is the use of the Keyword
WELDRAW to set the maximum drawdown allowed for each production well;
however, it can cause several convergence problems that not only slow down
drastically the simulation running time, but also can lead to bad results. For this
reason, if VFP tables are not available, a good option to be considered is to
control producing wells during prediction runs by setting the WCONPROD
Keyword to BHP control mode (Item 3), specify a target equal to the
abandonment BHP estimated for production wells in the field (economical or
technical restriction), and then, determine the productivity index multiplier
(WPIMULT keyword) needed to avoid the discontinuity generated on the
production rates vs. time curves (at the moment well controls are changed from
WCONHIST to WCOMPROD) due to the new BHP target. Figure 1 shows an
example of this discontinuity in the oil production rate vs. time curve.

Figure1
Once the appropriate well productivity index is adjusted, the Oil production rate
vs. time curve should looks like figure 2.

Figure 2

This well productivity index multiplier is determined by a trial and error process,
which has to be performed to eliminate the above mention discontinuity on the
production rates vs. time curves. This process begins assigning a seed value for
the WPIMULT of each producer that move form history matching to predictions,
and then by trial and error, WPIMULT values are adjusted through several short
prediction runs (2 or 3 years) until the discontinuity shown in figure 1 is
eliminated.

After each multiplier has been determined for each one of the producing wells
that move from history matching to prediction, the next step is to calculate the
WPIMULT for the new prediction wells to be drilled during the forecasting period.
This productivity index multiplier can be calculated as the weighted K*h average
of the WPIMULT values assigned to the current producers of the field (wells that
move form history matching to prediction) which honors these conditions: (1)
They must be in the adjacent area of the new location to be drilled, (2) They
should be mainly completed in the same sands the new location is going to be
completed.
The process of determining the WPIMULT values for each well is some times
tedious and time consuming (depending of the number of wells of the field being
modeled), but in my experience, it has always paid off the effort resulting in
prediction runs with reduced amount of converging problems and shorter running
prediction times.