PetroCup Training and Skill Testing Facility in Field Development and Production Management

Abstract

The paper provides an overview of digital oilfield development experience gained by Nafta College [1] employing the complex PolyPlan asset simulator during a multi-year programme of PetroCup [2] interactive tournaments. During the last few years, professional multi-disciplinary teams of 8 to 10 people from petroleum organisations based in various countries carried out few-days exercises on production and development of synthetic assets. In total, more than 20 petroleum companies, 10 petroleum service companies and 10 academic and research institutions have taken part in this programme. PetroCup sessions had various team structures, digital reserves and regional economics to ensure realistic production conditions. Despite this variation, some statistical metrics highlight dominant trends in oilfield development strategies, including effective and ineffective ones. The results may attract interest from petroleum asset managers to assess the efficiency of corporate strategies and policies in field development planning and well and reservoir management, and eventually increase their performance. The provided statistics are useful for managers of petroleum companies to assess the range, perspectives and value of production-related services. The PetroCup statistics can also be used by training centres and universities as an indicator of upstream trends and for maintaining the right focus in petroleum engineering curricula.