Sequential geosteering decisions for optimization of real-time well placement

Achieving an optimal placement of a well in thinly layered, faulted, and uncertain reservoir formations is a challenging operational decision making problem requiring optimization in real time (“geosteering”). This paper develops a discretized stochastic dynamic programming (DSDP) approach for sequential decisions in geosteering operations. This method is found to improve the resulting wellbore trajectories and to increase the overall value of the well by up to 31%.