Abstract

Continuous gas lift is a popular method to enhance productivity in offshore oil platforms. We propose a steady-state two-stage stochastic programming model to maximize production, where the first-stage injection level determines the production potential, while recourse actions ensure capacity and platform constraints for each uncertainty realization. In particular, we develop a concave approximation of the performance curve that incorporates uncertainty in the water cut (WC) and gas–oil ratio (GOR). We generate WC and GOR realizations using a two-step data-driven approach: we extrapolate the trends using a ℓ1-filter, and bootstrap historical deviations to generate future realizations of WC and GOR. We present numerical results for the sample average approximation of the problem and assess the solution quality using standard techniques in the literature. Our numerical results suggest that taking uncertainty into account in the problem can lead to considerable gains.