The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 13, 2014
Filed:
Dec. 04, 2009
Richard T. Houck, Houston, TX (US);
Grant A. Gist, Houston, TX (US);
Dachang LI, Katy, TX (US);
ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company, Houston, TX (US);
Abstract
Techniques are disclosed for performing time-lapse monitor surveys with sparsely sampled monitor data sets. An accurate 3D representation (e.g., image) of a target area (e.g., a hydrocarbon bearing subsurface reservoir) is constructed () using the sparsely sampled monitor data set (). The sparsely sampled monitor data set may be so limited that it alone is insufficient to generate an accurate 3D representation of the target area, but accuracy is enabled through use of certain external information (). The external information may be one or more alternative predicted models () that are representative of different predictions regarding how the target area may change over a lapse of time. The alternative models may, for example, reflect differences in permeability of at least a portion of the target area. The sparsely sampled monitor data set may then be processed to determine () which of the alternative models is representative of the target area.