Data-Driven Proxy Model for Forecasting of Cumulative Oil Production during the Steam-Assisted Gravity Drainage Process

[Image: see text] The purpose of this study is to develop a data-driven proxy model for forecasting of cumulative oil (Cum-oil) production during the steam-assisted gravity drainage process. During the model building process, an artificial neural network (ANN) is used to offer a complementary and computationally efficient tool for the physics-driven model, and the von Bertalanffy performance indicator is used to bridge the physics-driven model with the ANN. After that, the accuracy of the model is validated by blind-testing cases. Average absolute percentage error of related parameters of the performance indicator in the testing data set is 0.77%, and the error of Cum-oil production after 20 years is 0.52%. The results illustrate that the integration of performance indicator and ANN makes it possible to solve time series problems in an efficient way. Besides, the data-driven proxy model could be applied to fast parametric studies, quick uncertainty analysis with the Monte Carlo method, and average daily oil production prediction. The findings of this study could help for better understanding of combination of physics-driven model and data-driven model and illustrate the potential for application of the data-driven proxy model to help reservoir engineers, making better use of this significant thermal recovery technology for oil sands or heavy oil reservoirs.