It is challenging to find optimal well placement and completion design for maximum reservoir contact (MRC) wells in heterogeneous oil and gas reservoirs. Saudi Aramco initiated a new workflow in collaboration with a service company, to achieve such objectives based on integrated software packages of Petrel and Saudi Aramco's POWERS simulator. This workflow can conduct simulation runs optimizing well architecture, smart completions with inflow control devices (ICDs/ICVs), lateral and vertical shift of the well, to obtain maximum oil and gas recovery applying sensitivity and optimization algorithms. The new workflow proved to have robust functionality and provided significant cost savings and optimal oil and gas recovery.

Three case studies are discussed in this paper. The new workflow assessed the proposed sidetrack and concluded that it was not a good option due to faster water influx from the west flank. This workflow moved the sidetrack lateral 207 m to the east and designed to equip the well with ICD and blank pipes. The optimized sidetrack provided 50% more oil recovery than the well that was not moved.

The second case was to propose the best location and complex well design for a dual-lateral maintain potential well. The most sensitive parameters were moving the well to the north and vertical locations, motherbore's length and oil rates. Shifting dual laterals 750 m north, optimized ICDs, and 1,750-m motherbore length provided double the cumulative oil production than the single well manually designed and completed.

The third case discusses a trilateral well optimization for an oil field that is under development. Based on the sensitivity analysis and shifting well locations have the most significant impact to provide higher oil recovery and delayed water breakthrough for several years.