Patents by Inventor Kaiming Xia

Kaiming Xia has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11976540
    Abstract: Techniques for hydraulic fracturing a subsurface formation can include using a deterministic model to simulate a deviated well comprising a casing and at least one perforation tunnel. The techniques can include determining a different statistical distribution for each of one or more parameters to the deterministic model. The statistical distributions can be determined from the log data along the measured depth within the wellbore. The techniques can include probabilistically solving the deterministic model to determine a mean and a standard deviation of breakdown pressures along the measured depth within the wellbore. The techniques can include processing the mean and the standard deviation of breakdown pressures to determine an upper bound breakdown pressure based on a level of confidence. The techniques can include drilling and completing a deviated well based on the determined upper bound breakdown pressure and injecting hydraulic fluid to cause hydraulic fracturing of the subsurface formation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 7, 2024
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Yufeng Cui
  • Publication number: 20240110472
    Abstract: Systems and methods include a technique for drilling and fracturing wells. Geomechanical properties and in-situ stresses for the field are estimated using collected data and results from mini-fracking tests. A 3D geomechanics model for the field is generated based on 3D property model and natural fracture network. First 3D hydraulic fracturing modeling for a single well is conducted to obtain an optimum pump schedule for a target fracture length and well spacing for placing numerous horizontal wells in the field. Then 3D hydraulic fracturing modeling for the multiple wells is conducted based on a drilling-fracturing sequence configured to generate symmetric fractures and to determine an optimum pump schedule for middle wells, considering tensile stress superposition. The drilling-fracturing sequence includes initially skipping fracturing of a drilled well adjacent to a fractured well. The group of wells are drilled and fractured using the sequence.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2022
    Publication date: April 4, 2024
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Yanhui Han
  • Publication number: 20240070346
    Abstract: Systems and methods include techniques for determining whether to use underbalanced coiled tubing drilling (UBCTD) or conventional drilling with hydraulic fracturing to drill a new well in deep and tight reservoirs with slow rate of penetration issues. Estimates of geomechanical properties and image log processing for past-drilled wells are completed first, then three-dimensional (3D) property modeling and natural fracture prediction (NFP) for the domain are conducted. Then a 3D geomechanics model is generated. After this the rock properties and NFP along the planned well trajectory are extracted. The diagenetic rock typing is evaluated. Required breakdown pressure for hydraulic fracturing is calculated. A determination based on the diagenetic rock typing and required breakdown pressure is made whether UBCTD or conventional drilling with hydraulic fracturing should be used for a new well.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2022
    Publication date: February 29, 2024
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Yanhui Han, Tariq Mahmood, Kausik Saikia, Weihua Wang, Saidi Ali Hassani
  • Patent number: 11761311
    Abstract: A perforation cluster of a longitudinal section of a wellbore is provided. The wellbore is for hydraulic fracturing in a preferred direction of a subsurface surrounding the longitudinal section. The longitudinal section has a longitudinal axis in a longitudinal direction and defining a radial direction about the longitudinal axis. The perforation cluster includes all of the perforations of the wellbore within the longitudinal section. The perforations are separated in the longitudinal and radial directions. Two perforations are adjacent in the longitudinal direction and have a first diameter. They also have respective centers that are aligned in the preferred direction with respect to the longitudinal axis and 180° apart in the radial direction, for initiating fractures through hydraulic fracturing in the subsurface. The remaining perforations have a second diameter smaller than the first diameter.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 3, 2021
    Date of Patent: September 19, 2023
    Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventor: Kaiming Xia
  • Publication number: 20230193744
    Abstract: A system for determining a direction for drilling a well is disclosed. The system has a device in a portion of a conveyance mechanism comprising a cylindrical housing with at least one sensor that tracks a position of the portion during a drilling operation, the device being configured to obtain a plurality of drilling parameters, and a control system coupled to the device and configured to perform at least one reservoir simulation, and prepare a plurality of required parameters while drilling. The device uses an optimization box to simulate increasing an angle between a drilling direction and a maximum horizontal stress by calculating a minimum mud pressure required to prevent borehole collapse. The control system generates an engineering curve representative of each angle simulated and a corresponding mud weight or pressure, and the device and the control system identify an optimal direction corresponding to a minimum drilling mud pressure parameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 16, 2021
    Publication date: June 22, 2023
    Applicants: ARAMCO SERVICES COMPANY, SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Yanhui Han, Kaiming Xia
  • Publication number: 20230175359
    Abstract: A perforation cluster of a longitudinal section of a wellbore is provided. The wellbore is for hydraulic fracturing in a preferred direction of a subsurface surrounding the longitudinal section. The longitudinal section has a longitudinal axis in a longitudinal direction and defining a radial direction about the longitudinal axis. The perforation cluster includes all of the perforations of the wellbore within the longitudinal section. The perforations are separated in the longitudinal and radial directions. Two perforations are adjacent in the longitudinal direction and have a first diameter. They also have respective centers that are aligned in the preferred direction with respect to the longitudinal axis and 180° apart in the radial direction, for initiating fractures through hydraulic fracturing in the subsurface. The remaining perforations have a second diameter smaller than the first diameter.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 3, 2021
    Publication date: June 8, 2023
    Inventor: Kaiming Xia
  • Publication number: 20230064121
    Abstract: Systems and methods for determining perforation orientations of a subterranean formation for a hydraulic fracturing treatment are presented. The method comprises identifying in-situ stresses for a portion of a wellbore formed from a terranean surface into a subterranean formation. The method also includes transforming the in-situ stresses from a global coordinate system to a wellbore coordinate system at a perforation cluster of the wellbore that comprises at least one perforation tunnel for a hydraulic fracturing treatment. The in-situ stresses are transformed from the wellbore coordinate system to a perforation coordinate system through at least one rotation matrix. Pressure coefficients and a breakdown pressure for each trial perforation phase angle at a perforation cluster determined, and a perforation point in the wellbore coordinate system is calculated for each trial perforation phase angle of the perforation cluster.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 24, 2021
    Publication date: March 2, 2023
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Yufeng Cui
  • Publication number: 20230012733
    Abstract: Systems and methods include a computer-implemented method for predicting hydraulic fracture initiation. A fracking operations dataset is prepared using historical field information for fracking wells. A set of hyper-parameters is tuned for use in a machine learning algorithm configured to predict fracture initiation for new fracturing wells. The dataset is divided into training and test datasets. A regression algorithm is applied to train the training dataset and to validate with the test dataset. A target variable of a breakdown pressure for a new hydraulic fracturing treatment is determined. A prediction dataset is updated using at least the target variable. The training dataset is trained using a classifier of the machine learning algorithm. A prediction is made using the prediction dataset whether the new hydraulic fracturing treatment can be initiated or not. The breakdown pressure is incrementally adjusted, and the method is repeated until successful hydraulic fracture initiation is predicted.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Publication date: January 19, 2023
    Inventor: Kaiming Xia
  • Publication number: 20220259960
    Abstract: Techniques for hydraulic fracturing a subsurface formation can include using a deterministic model to simulate a deviated well comprising a casing and at least one perforation tunnel. The techniques can include determining a different statistical distribution for each of one or more parameters to the deterministic model. The statistical distributions can be determined from the log data along the measured depth within the wellbore. The techniques can include probabilistically solving the deterministic model to determine a mean and a standard deviation of breakdown pressures along the measured depth within the wellbore. The techniques can include processing the mean and the standard deviation of breakdown pressures to determine an upper bound breakdown pressure based on a level of confidence. The techniques can include drilling and completing a deviated well based on the determined upper bound breakdown pressure and injecting hydraulic fluid to cause hydraulic fracturing of the subsurface formation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2021
    Publication date: August 18, 2022
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Yufeng Cui
  • Patent number: 11391135
    Abstract: Some methods of hydraulic fracturing of a subsurface formation include using a three-dimensional finite element model to simulate a deviated well with a wellbore casing, a cement adjacent to the wellbore casing, and a perforation cluster with at least two perforations. The FEM is applied (or solved) to determine a breakdown pressure of the deviated well based on an amount of tensile damage of the perforation cluster induced by an applied pressure representing injected hydraulic fluid. The FEM accounts for the 3D complex configuration of wellbore and perforation cluster. A deviated well is drilled and completed with a wellbore casing size, tubing size, wellhead, and hydraulic fracturing pump schedule selected at least in part based on the determined breakdown pressure before hydraulic fluid is injected into the deviated well at an injection pressure, which represents the required breakdown pressure to cause hydraulic fracturing of the rock of the subsurface formation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: July 19, 2022
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Tariq Mahmood
  • Publication number: 20220213771
    Abstract: Some methods of hydraulic fracturing of a subsurface formation include using a three-dimensional finite element model to simulate a deviated well with a wellbore casing, a cement adjacent to the wellbore casing, and a perforation cluster with at least two perforations. The FEM is applied (or solved) to determine a breakdown pressure of the deviated well based on an amount of tensile damage of the perforation cluster induced by an applied pressure representing injected hydraulic fluid. The FEM accounts for the 3D complex configuration of wellbore and perforation cluster. A deviated well is drilled and completed with a wellbore casing size, tubing size, wellhead, and hydraulic fracturing pump schedule selected at least in part based on the determined breakdown pressure before hydraulic fluid is injected into the deviated well at an injection pressure, which represents the required breakdown pressure to cause hydraulic fracturing of the rock of the subsurface formation.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 4, 2021
    Publication date: July 7, 2022
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Tariq Mahmood
  • Publication number: 20220113447
    Abstract: Systems and methods for selecting a hydraulic fracturing method are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of selecting a hydraulic fracturing process includes simulating, using one or more processors, a cased hole/perforation hydraulic fracturing process for a well within a field, wherein the simulating accounts for an interaction between hydraulic fractures and a natural fracture network surrounding the well. The method further includes receiving a determination of whether the hydraulic fractures interact with the natural fracture network according to an interaction criteria, receiving a selection of the cased hole hydraulic fracturing process in response to the hydraulic fractures not interacting with the natural fracture network according to the interaction criteria, and receiving a selection of an open hole hydraulic fracturing process in response to the hydraulic fractures interacting with the natural fracture network according to the interaction criteria.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 14, 2020
    Publication date: April 14, 2022
    Applicant: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Tariq Mahmood
  • Publication number: 20220106869
    Abstract: Systems and methods are related to techniques related to reducing breakdown pressure for open hole hydraulic fracturing treatment through injecting cooling agents. The techniques may include identifying a stage of a multi-stage borehole. The techniques may further include identifying a parameter of rock that is adjacent the multi-stage borehole. The techniques may further include identifying, based on the parameter, a criteria of a cooling process that is to be performed on the rock. As a result, breakdown pressure of the rock may be reduced. The techniques may further include outputting an indication of the criteria for use in performing the cooling process. Other embodiments may be described or claimed.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 2, 2020
    Publication date: April 7, 2022
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Tariq Mahmood, Saidi Ali Hassani
  • Patent number: 11255184
    Abstract: Techniques for determining a breakdown pressure of a subterranean formation include identifying in-situ stresses for a portion of a wellbore formed into a subterranean formation; transforming the in-situ stresses (and induced stresses) from a global coordinate system to a wellbore coordinate system of a deviated portion of the wellbore that includes at least one perforation tunnel for a hydraulic fracturing treatment; transforming the in-situ stresses from the wellbore coordinate system to a perforation coordinate system through at least one rotation matrix; determining one or more stresses at a wellbore-perforation interface of the perforation tunnel from the in-situ stresses in the perforation coordinate system; calculating one or more hoop stresses at a perforation tunnel wall of the perforation tunnel from the determined stresses on the wellbore-perforation interface; and determining a breakdown pressure for the subterranean formation based on the calculated one or more hoop stresses and an effect of casi
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2020
    Date of Patent: February 22, 2022
    Inventors: Kaiming Xia, Yufeng Cui