An Enhanced Moss Growth Optimization Algorithm with Outpost Mechanism and Early Stopping Strategy for Production Optimization in Tight Reservoirs.

Optimization algorithms play a crucial role in solving complex problems in reservoir geology and engineering, particularly those involving highly non-linear, multi-parameter, and high-dimensional systems. In the context of reservoir development, accurate optimization is essential for enhancing hydrocarbon recovery, improving production efficiency, and managing subsurface uncertainties. The Moss Growth Optimization (MGO) algorithm emulates the adaptive growth and reproductive strategies of moss. It provides a robust bio-inspired framework for global optimization. However, MGO often suffers from slow convergence and difficulty in escaping local optima in highly multimodal landscapes. To address these limitations, this paper proposes a novel algorithm called Strategic Moss Growth Optimization (SMGO). SMGO integrates two enhancements: an Outpost Mechanism (OM) and an Early Stopping Strategy (ESS). The OM improves exploitation by guiding individuals through multi-stage local search with Gaussian-distributed exploration around promising regions. This helps refine the search and prevents stagnation in sub-optimal areas. In parallel, the ESS periodically reinitializes the population using a run-and-reset procedure. This diversification allows the algorithm to escape local minima and maintain population diversity. Together, these strategies enable SMGO to accelerate convergence while ensuring solution quality. Its performance is rigorously evaluated on a suite of global optimization benchmarks and compared with state-of-the-art metaheuristics. The results show that SMGO achieves superior or highly competitive outcomes, with clear improvements in accuracy and stability. To demonstrate real-world applicability, SMGO is applied to production optimization in tight reservoirs. The algorithm identifies superior production strategies, leading to significant improvements in projected economic returns. This successful application highlights the robustness and practical value of SMGO. It offers a powerful and reliable optimization tool for complex engineering problems, particularly in strategic resource management for tight reservoir development.