A method of selecting the positions of wells to be drilled for the development of a petroleum reservoir from a set of reservoir images. Well configurations are optimized by calculating a first quality criterion using a flow simulator applied to a limited number of reservoir images. Previously obtained configuration simulation results previously obtained are used for configurations physically close to the configuration to be assessed. A second reservoir development quality criterion is calculated for the optimized configurations using a flow simulator applied to each image of the reservoir. Finally, the well location corresponding to the optimized configuration having the best second quality criterion is selected.