Abstract

During the last two decades, Fuzzy Logic (FL) Systems have been increasingly applied to the research area of petroleum engineering. Hydraulic Fracturing (HF) as an important discipline in this area and stimulation of oil and gas wells is an important tool for natural gas and oil exploitation, whose success relies on proper selection of target well and target formation. To date, however, no paper has attempted to summarize and present a critique of the existing FL literature. This paper, therefore, aims to review the FL literature that has been conducted in candidate-well selection for HF. Selecting a target formation(s) among a vast numbers of zones/sub-layers within huge numbers of hydrocarbon-producing wells in a reservoir is considered a difficult task, particularly if the selection goes through a group of parameters having different domains, attributes and features. In fact, this process had been recognized to be complex, nonlinear and adherent with uncertainty. It is proved that methods such as FL could reduce the uncertainty thus permit superior selection of candidates well for HF treatment. The comprehensive review provided in this paper offers new directions for FL and its application in HF candidate-well selection.

Key words: Candidate selection, hydraulic fracturing, fuzzy logic, uncertainty.