Abstract As greenfields evolve into brownfields, major operators face increasing challenges in discovering and developing new economically viable reserves. This is particularly evident in frontier areas such as the Equatorial Margin, where exploration is often accompanied by technical complexity and environmental constraints. In response, operators are compelled to either expand their existing brownfield portfolios or invest in complementary projects that leverage innovation to sustain production targets. In this context, our work proposes a forward-looking approach to this inevitable transition, using synthetic data to demonstrate its potential. By addressing today's high capital expenditure (CAPEX) environment, we introduce an innovative field development screening methodology designed to generate disruptive concepts for use in this transition. These concepts are supported by robust economic evaluations that assess profitability even under adverse conditions and challenging operational boundaries. The study spans multiple domains within the oil and gas value chain. It begins with FPSO positioning optimization and pipeline routing optimization, taking into account terrain variability and pipeline constraints specific to each scenario. The tool then automatically generates a production network tailored to each development case. This network is integrated with reservoir simulation to deliver accurate production forecasts that incorporate flow constraints based on each input set. The use case here presented is designed to offshore fields, however, the same methodology with very few changes can be applied to onshore fields. To ensure consistency and traceability, the workflow is fully integrated with a cost estimation tool. This allows for dynamic calculation of cost differentials across scenarios, including both pipeline and node expenditures. The entire chain feeds into an economic evaluation engine, which can be adjusted to reflect the fiscal regime of the designated region. The result is a unified and automated process that supports strategic decision-making. Scenarios are compared not only on technical feasibility but also to key performance outcomes (KPOs), enabling operators to identify the most economically and operationally viable options, which can be scaled up to thousands of evaluations. This approach strengthens the case for proactive planning in field development and illustrates how data integration with robust multiphase flow and reservoir simulation may join innovation to drive better outcomes in a high-CAPEX, low-margin landscape.
Machado et al. (Tue,) studied this question.