Schlumberger Technology Corporation

Westerngeco L.l.p.

Schlumberger Canada Limited

Services Petroliers Schlumberger

Schlumberger Holdings Limited

Prad Research and Development Limited

Peter Gerhard Tilke

Michael David Prange

Benoit Couet

Terizhandur S Ramakrishnan

Smaine Zeroug

William John Bailey

Clinton Dane Chapman

Raj Banerjee

Jeffrey Spath

Raj Kumar Michael Thambynayagam

William J Bailey

Andrew J Carnegie

Vijaya Halabe

Tarek M Habashy

Bikash Kumar Sinha

Sandip Bose

Bhavani Raghuraman

Francois M Auzerais

Kashif Rashid

Ian D Bryant

Cengiz Esmersoy

Andrew John Carnegie

George Alan Waters

Nicholas N Bennett

Maurice Nessim

David Furse Allen

Sudhendu Kashikar

Michael Thambynayagam

Nader Dutta

R K Michael Thambynayagam

Gregory P Grove

Darren Lee Aklestad

Martin Crick

Annabelle Kania

Darren Lee Acklestad

Christopher Hopkins

Virgile Galle

Xuqing Wu

Systems and methods for optimizing oilfield rig fleet scheduling and deployment are disclosed. Wells are identified to have time constraints by which they are grouped into 'ON', 'BY', and &#x201c;ADD&#x201d; categories. ON wells have a beginning drilling availability window; BY wells have an ending drilling availability time only; and ADD wells have no beginning or ending time of drilling availability. The systems and methods optimize scheduling with ON wells having higher priority than BY wells, and BY wells having higher priority than ADD wells.

Systems and methods for rig scheduling with optimal fleet sizing

Methods utilizing ultrasonic acoustic logging tools are provided for detecting thin formation layers that present markedly higher compliance than that of the surrounding rock in, for example, a laminated tight hydrocarbon-bearing formation. These layers may be interpreted as presenting potential interfacial and planes of weakness that may have bearing on the extent of a hydraulic fracture propagating across them.

Measurement and processing to detect weak interfacial layers in hydrocarbon-bearing laminated formations with acoustic logging devices

Methods and systems are provided for modeling an aspect of a hydrocarbon-containing reservoir by constructing a first factor graph having variables and factors that describe the aspect of the hydrocarbon-containing reservoir. The first factor graph is converted to a tree-structured graph that does not have any cycle or loops. The tree-structured graph is converted to a second factor graph that does not contain any cycles or loops, wherein the second factor graph has variables and factors that describe the aspect of the hydrocarbon-containing reservoir. A query on the second factor graph is carried out involving message passing operations that perform probabilistic inference on the second factor graph with regard to the aspect of the hydrocarbon-containing reservoir that is modeled by the second factor graph.

Probabalistic modeling and analysis of hydrocarbon-containing reservoirs

A method, apparatus and program product utilize infeasible regions projected onto sets of substantially parallel feasibility planes extending through a subsurface region to perform anti-collision and other types of hazard avoidance analysis. Hazards, e.g., existing well trajectories, that intersect the feasibility planes, as well as any uncertainties associated therewith, may be represented as infeasible regions in the feasibility planes, such that an analysis of the feasibility of a proposed well trajectory may be determined in a computationally efficient manner through a comparison of the locations, within one or more feasibility planes, of the proposed well trajectory and any infeasible regions defined in such feasibility planes.

Hazard avoidance analysis

A system for automatically optimizing a Field Development Plan (FDP) for an oil or gas field uses a fast analytic reservoir simulator to dynamically model oil or gas production from the entire reservoir over time in an accurate and rapid manner. An objective function defining a Figure of Merit (FoM) for candidate FDPs is maximized, using an optimization algorithm, to determine an optimized FDP in light of physical, engineering, operational, legal and engineering constraints. The objective function for the Figure of Merit, e.g., net present value (NPV) or total production for a given period of time, relies on a production forecast from the fast analytic reservoir simulator for the entire FDP.

Automated field development planning

A system and method for performing an adaptive drilling operation is provided. The method involves obtaining data prior to drilling, constructing a base model with a base model unit from data obtained prior to drilling, constructing an overburden posterior model with an overburden model unit using the base model and data obtained from overburden drilling, constructing a reservoir posterior model with a reservoir model unit using the overburden posterior model and the data obtained from reservoir drilling and updating drilling operation based on the models.

System and method for performing an adaptive drilling operation

A hybrid evolutionary algorithm ('HEA') technique is described for automatically calculating well and drainage locations in a field. The technique includes planning a set of wells on a static reservoir model using an automated well planner tool that designs realistic wells that satisfy drilling and construction constraints. A subset of these locations is then selected based on dynamic flow simulation using a cost function that maximizes recovery or economic benefit. In particular, a large population of candidate targets, drain holes and trajectories is initially created using fast calculation analysis tools of cost and value, and as the workflow proceeds, the population size is reduced in each successive operation, thereby facilitating use of increasingly sophisticated calculation analysis tools for economic valuation of the reservoir while reducing overall time required to obtain the result. In the final operation, only a small number of full reservoir simulations are required for the most promising FDPs.

Automated field development planning of well and drainage locations

A novel method is presented to automatically design a multi-well development plan given a set of previously interpreted subsurface targets. This method identifies the optimal plan by minimizing the total cost as a function of existing and required new platforms, the number of wells, and the drilling cost of each of the wells. The cost of each well is a function of the well path and the overall complexity of the well.

Geometrical optimization of multi-well trajectories

A method of characterizing a borehole traversing an earth formation including (a) obtaining an array of data from a formation characterization tool, wherein the data describes a section of the borehole; (b) computing at least one spatial characteristic describing the relative position of pairs of data; (c) assigning said pairs of data to bins based on the spatial characteristic, wherein the size of the bins are selected based on the tool; (d) transforming the data to petrophysical properties of the borehole; (e) calculating the variance of each bin; (f) developing a model of the variances; (g) determining at least one geostatistical parameter using the model; and (h) upscaling the geostatistical parameters to characterize a region of said earth formation. The method may further include generating a heterogeneity index log using the geostatistical model parameters. The method may be implemented using a computer program product for processing and interpreting borehole data.

Automated borehole geology and petrophysics interpretation using image logs

A method of managing oil fields include installing oil field sensors, coupling them to a local CPU having memory, programming the CPU for data collection and data analysis, and coupling local oil field CPUs to a web server. Human experts are granted access to oil field data in real time via the Internet. The local CPUs provide different levels of data to the web server. The web server provides the option to view raw data, partially analyzed data, or fully analyzed data. The local CPUs are programmed with parameters for analyzing the data and automatically determining the presence of anomalies. Upon detecting the occurrence of an anomaly, the local CPUs are programmed to notify one or more human experts by email, pager, telephone, etc. If no human expert responds to the notification within a programmed period of time, the local CPU automatically takes a programmed corrective action.

Methods and apparatus for remote real time oil field management

An oilfield data analysis system is based on a four-tier software model which includes a &ldquo;shared earth model&rdquo; and a federation of &ldquo;directory services&rdquo;. The first tier is a universal graphical user interface (GUI) which can operate on any inexpensive computer as well as on an expensive workstation, i.e. a &ldquo;web browser&rdquo;. The second tier is an application server which is coupled to users via the worldwide web and serves geoscientific software applications. The third tier is a geometric modelling system where geometric data is stored and processed. The third tier embodies the &ldquo;shared earth model&rdquo;. The fourth tier is a database management system where non-geometric data is stored. According to the invention, there can be (and preferably are) multiple instances of each tier. Communication of data between different tiers is accomplished via XML data exchange. According to a presently preferred embodiment, the geoscience applications served by the second tier are written as JAVA servlets and applications may communicate with each other without human direction by registering requests with &ldquo;directory services&rdquo;. Applications interested in certain types of data &ldquo;listen&rdquo; for &ldquo;data events&rdquo; being registered with directory services. The cost of utilizing an application can be based on a time-rental billing operation which is carried out automatically via directory services.

Oilfield analysis systems and methods

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Ridgefield, CT, United States of America

Peter Gerhard Tilke