An integrated Shannon Entropy and reference ideal method for the selection of enhanced oil recovery pilot areas based on an unsupervised machine learning algorithm

Pilot-scale enhanced oil recovery in hydrocarbon field development is often implemented to reduce investment risk due to geological uncertainties. Selection of the pilot area is important, since the result will be extended to the full field. The main challenge in choosing a pilot region is the absence of a systematic and quantitative method. In this paper, we present a novel quantitative and systematic method composed of reservoir-geology and operational-economic criteria where a cluster analysis is utilized as an unsupervised machine learning method. A field of study will be subdivided into pilot candidate areas, and the optimized pilot size is calculated using the economic objective function. Subsequently, the corresponding Covariance (COV) matrix is computed for the simulated 3-D reservoir quality maps in the areas. The areas are optimally clustered to select the dominant cluster. The operational-economic criteria could be applied for decision making as well as the proximity of each area to the center of dominant cluster as a geological-reservoir criterion. Ultimately, the Shannon entropy weighting and the reference ideal method are applied to compute the pilot opportunity index in each area. The proposed method was employed for a pilot study on an oil field in south west Iran.