Atlantic Richfield Company

Kelly D Crawford

Michael D McCormack

Richard F Stoisits

Donald J MacAllister

A computer system and method of operating the same to optimize the operating conditions of a petroleum production field, in which a plurality of wells are arranged according to drill sites, and connected to one or more central processing facilities, is disclosed. In this disclosed embodiment, gas compression capacity is a significant constraint on the operation of the complex production field, and surface line hydraulic effects of well production are to be considered in the optimization. A genetic algorithm is used to generate, and iteratively evaluate solution vectors, which are combinations of field operating parameters such as incremental gas-oil ratio cutoff and formation gas-oil ratio cutoff values. The evaluation includes the operation of an adaptive network to determine production header pressures, followed by modification of well output estimates to account for changes in the production header pressure. Convergence of the genetic algorithm identifies one of the solution vectors as containing an optimal combination of field operating parameters that may be used by production personnel to set the operating conditions of the field.

Petroleum production optimization utilizing adaptive network and genetic algorithm techniques

A system and method is provided for estimating the inverse source wavelet of a seismic shot record for improved accuracy and efficiency in removing high order free surface multiples from the shot record, using a stochastic optimization technique, such as a genetic algorithm procedure, that can more readily accommodate non-linear aspects of this problem. The system and method is applied to a set of measured seismic field data, D.sub.o (x,t), with primary reflections and free surface multiples, where removal of the free surface multiples is determined utilizing an estimate of the inverse of the source wavelet and scale factors made from the seismic data. The system and method automatically optimizes estimates for the inverse of the source wavelet and scale factors.

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Allen, TX, United States of America

Kelly D Crawford