The objective of this research is to investigate the effectiveness of “Genetic Algorithm” technique to optimize the performance of hydrocarbon producing wells. Through this paper, a new method for analysis of an oil and gas condensate production system is presented. This method is a new stochastic method which enables us to analyze a system of mathematical equations containing a great number of decision variables and determine the optimum values of them resulting in the most economical profit. The presented method is referred to as “Genetic Algorithm” (GA). A mathematical approach is initially obtained for well model and surface facilities and then it is analyzed and optimized, based on the economical profit, using GA approach. The performance of a production well is a function of several variables. Examples of these variables are tubing size, choke size, and separator pressures. Changing any of the variables will alter the performance of the well. The production facilities considered in this paper consist of tubing, choke, and separators. The method applied is able to consider dual sized tubing (combination of tubing and casing). Furthermore, it is able to determine the optimum number of separators. The developed code in MATLAB environment based on GA is able to obtain the most optimum size(s) for the tubing (single size or dual sized tubing), the depth at which the tubing size should varies (in case dual sized tubing is selected), choke size, number of separators, and separator pressures resulting in the most amount of hydrocarbon liquid production. Finally, this method and the developed code have been applied to production system of a real oil field and the obtained results have been compared to those of Prosper simulator. The results show that GA is a powerful tool to analyze production system of hydrocarbon fields.
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