Optimum Exploitation Strategy at Larderello-Valle Secolo

Abstract

At Larderello Valle Secolo a 40-year production history and a day total field shut-in supplied the basis for optimization of field management. Constant pressure was compared to constant flowrate exploitation. Constant pressure operation allows producing an additional 4% of discounted energy as compared to constant flowrate operation. The optimum reservoir pressure proved to be 0.65 a value affected very little by the uncertainties on future field performance, so this policy allows producing the maximum energy even with poor field knowledge. Conversely, determining the optimum flowrate at constant flowrate operation requires a very accurate forecast of field performance, which is not possible even if a long production history is available.