Formation Characteristic Patents (Class 702/11)
  • Patent number: 11885757
    Abstract: A method for analyzing a rock sample includes segmenting a digital image volume corresponding to an image of the rock sample, to associate voxels in the digital image volume with a plurality of rock fabrics of the rock sample. The method also includes identifying a set of digital planes through the digital image volume. The set of digital planes intersects with each of the plurality of rock fabrics. The method further includes machining the rock sample to expose physical faces that correspond to the identified digital planes, performing scanning electron microscope (SEM) imaging of the physical faces to generate two-dimensional (2D) SEM images of the physical faces, and performing image processing on the SEM images to determine a material property associated with each of the rock fabrics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 10, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 30, 2024
    Assignee: BP Corporation North America Inc.
    Inventors: Glen L. Gettemy, Nirjhor Chakraborty, Milad Saidian
  • Patent number: 11836109
    Abstract: A method includes receiving fluid property data of a fluid and receiving material property data for materials in the fluid. The method includes detecting material sensor data from at least one sensor and applying an inverse model and a forward model to the fluid property data and the material property data to provide at least in part synthetic spectral channel data for the materials.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 19, 2022
    Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Dingding Chen, Bin Dai, Christopher Michael Jones, Jing Shen, Anthony Van Zuilekom
  • Patent number: 11802475
    Abstract: A method is provided for monitoring the occurrence of pressure anomalies due to FDI in near real time during a hydraulic fracturing operation carried out on an active well that is located near one or more passive monitoring wells. The method includes the steps of obtaining raw pressure sensor data from the one or more passive monitoring wells, processing the pressure sensor data with the FDI analysis module, and determining if the rate of change for averaged pressure sensor data exceeds a preset threshold value that indicates the likelihood of a pressure anomaly. The methods can be configured to autonomously alert an operator of the likelihood of a pressure anomaly and with guidance on resolving the anomalies.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 27, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 31, 2023
    Assignee: Baker Hughes Oilfield Operations LLC
    Inventors: Robert Klenner, Hayley Stephenson, Thomas Nguyen, Guoxiang Liu, Alireza Shahkarami, Glen Murrell
  • Patent number: 11795804
    Abstract: A drilling device may use a concurrent path planning process to create a path from a starting location to a destination location within a subterranean environment. The drilling device can receive sensor data. A probability distribution can be generated from the sensor data indicating one or more likely materials compositions that make up each portion of the subterranean environment. The probability distribution can be sampled, and for each sample, a drill path trajectory and drill parameters for the trajectory can be generated. A trained neural network may evaluate each trajectory and drill parameters to identify the most ideal trajectory based on the sensor data. The drilling device may then initiate drilling operations for a predetermined distance along the ideal trajectory.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 12, 2019
    Date of Patent: October 24, 2023
    Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation
    Inventors: Yashas Malur Saidutta, Srinath Madasu, Shashi Dande, Keshava Prasad Rangarajan, Raja Vikram R. Pandya, Jeffrey M. Yarus, Robello Samuel
  • Patent number: 11781428
    Abstract: The present application relates to a permeability evaluation method for hydrate-bearing sediment, including a complex conductivity spectrum obtaining step, a hydrate saturation calculating step based on the spectrum, a formation factor calculating step based on Archie's first law or from the complex conductivity real part, imaginary part and a conductivity of pore water; and a permeability calculating step based on relaxation time, hydrate saturation, hydrate occurrence mode correction factor and formation factor, or based on the polarization amplitude, hydrate saturation, occurrence mode correction factor and formation factor, or based on the CEC, hydrate saturation and occurrence mode correction factor, or based on the pore radius, fractal dimension, hydrate saturation and occurrence mode correction factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 13, 2023
    Date of Patent: October 10, 2023
    Assignee: CHINA UNIVERSITY OF PETROLEUM (EAST CHINA)
    Inventors: Lanchang Xing, Shuo Wang, Huanhuan Zhang, Bin Wang, Zhoutuo Wei, Xinmin Ge, Shaogui Deng
  • Patent number: 11740373
    Abstract: Systems and methods for determining mechanical properties of anisotropic media are disclosed. A method for determining mechanical properties of an anisotropic media includes obtaining log data of the anisotropic media, the log data corresponding to measurements of the anisotropic media collected with a logging tool; determining values for a plurality of first stiffness components of a stiffness matrix based on horizontal and vertical velocities derived from the log data; determining an upper bound for a second stiffness component of the stiffness matrix based on the values for the plurality of first stiffness components; estimating a value for the second stiffness component based on the determined upper bound; determining a mechanical property of the anisotropic media based on the estimated value of the second stiffness component; and providing the determined mechanical property.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 9, 2022
    Date of Patent: August 29, 2023
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Mehdi Eftekhari Far
  • Patent number: 11703612
    Abstract: Methods and systems are provided for characterizing a subterranean formation that involve the generation of four 3D geological model of the formation that are updated before and after an enhanced hydrocarbon production process.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 25, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2023
    Assignee: SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Mohammed Badri, Ping Zhang, Wael Abdallah
  • Patent number: 11693141
    Abstract: Systems and methods are provided for determining a formation body wave slowness from an acoustic wave. Waveform data is determined by logging tool measuring the acoustic wave. Wave features are determined from the waveform data and a model is applied to the wave features to determine data-driven scale factors The data-driven scale factors can be used to determine a body wave slowness within a surrounding borehole environment and the body wave slowness can be used to determine formation characteristics of the borehole environment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 6, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 4, 2023
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Ruijia Wang, John Granville
  • Patent number: 11674846
    Abstract: A device may determine a calibration value for a spectrometer using light from a first light source; deactivate the first light source after determining the calibration value; perform measurement with regard to a sample based on the calibration value, wherein the measurement of the sample is performed using light from a second light source; determine that the calibration value is to be updated; and update the calibration value using the light from the first light source.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2021
    Date of Patent: June 13, 2023
    Assignee: VIAVI Solutions Inc.
    Inventor: Curtis R. Hruska
  • Patent number: 11649719
    Abstract: An example computer-implemented method for transmitting data from a downhole location to the earth's surface. The method includes sensing, with one or more sensors, sensor data downhole, the sensor data comprising a plurality of data value sets. The method further includes assigning at least one data value of each of the plurality of data value sets to each of a plurality of time levels or depth levels to generate a data block. The method further includes compressing, with a first processor in the drilling assembly, the data block by a block-based compression technique to generate compressed data. The method further includes transmitting, with a telemetry system, the compressed data from the downhole location to the surface. The method further includes decompressing, with a second processor at the surface, the compressed data to generate decompressed data values. The method further includes controlling the drilling assembly based on the decompressed data values.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 11, 2020
    Date of Patent: May 16, 2023
    Assignee: BAKER HUGHES OILFIELD OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Oliver Mohnke, Yuri Vatis, Martin Errenst, Holger Tietjen
  • Patent number: 11643922
    Abstract: Method and system for developing reservoirs, such as hydrocarbon reservoirs or aquifers, including correcting pressure transient test data to account for variations of fluid density between a gauge depth and a mid-reservoir depth in a wellbore. Gauge depth pressure and temperature measurements, and density correlations are used to estimate mid-reservoir depth pressures, which can be used in a pressure transient analysis.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 7, 2021
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2023
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Saud Bin Akresh, Noor Anisur Rahman
  • Patent number: 11636352
    Abstract: Systems and methods include a method for providing an integrated advanced visualization tool for geosteering underbalanced coiled tubing drilling (UBCTD) operations. Drilling operation data is received from different sources in real time during a drilling operation. The drilling operation data includes geological formation information recorded during the drilling operation, micropalaeontological test results of the drilling operation, drilling parameters being used during the drilling operation, cumulative productivity index calculations, and reservoir pressure information of reservoirs encountered during the drilling operation. The drilling operation data is analyzed to correlate elements of the drilling operation data by time and cumulative depth. A graph is generated in real time that includes multiple plots correlated as a function of cumulative depth over time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 13, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2023
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Ferney Geovany Moreno Sierra, Ahmad Azly Bin Abdul Aziz
  • Patent number: 11624277
    Abstract: Techniques for determining a fracture driven interaction include identifying pressure response data from one or more pressure sensors that are in direct fluid communication with a fluid at least partially enclosed within one or more monitor wellbores formed from a terranean surface to one or more subterranean formations; calculating at least one pressure response value from the pressure response data; determining the fracture driven interaction between the treatment wellbore and at least one of the one or more monitor wellbores based at least in part on the calculated at least one pressure response value; and preparing a graphic representation of the determined FDI for display on a graphical user interface.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 20, 2021
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: Reveal Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Erica Wilhelmina Catharina Coenen
  • Patent number: 11624846
    Abstract: A seismic monitoring system includes a plurality of seismic monitors and a processing device operatively coupled to the plurality of seismic monitors. The processing device receives recordings of waveforms of motion detected at the plurality of seismic detectors in a geographic area. The processing device applies the respective recordings to corresponding positions of the seismic detectors in a three-dimensional geological model that describes its elastic attributes and tests a plurality of moment tensors at a plurality of locations. Based on the testing, the processing device determines a globally convergent source location and moment tensor in the three-dimensional model based on the testing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2018
    Date of Patent: April 11, 2023
    Assignee: The Regents of the University of California
    Inventors: Petr Petrov, Gregory A Newman
  • Patent number: 11561315
    Abstract: Systems and methods are disclosed for identifying and displaying geostructural properties as a function of lithology, horizons, and faults interpreted from well and seismic data. Exemplary implementations may include obtaining an initial fracture distribution grid model; obtaining training structural deformation data; obtaining training subsurface lithology parameter data; obtaining training fracture attribute data; and training the initial fracture distribution grid model to generate a trained fracture distribution grid model.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2021
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: CHEVRON U.S.A. INC.
    Inventors: Alena Grechishnikova, Shane J. Prochnow
  • Patent number: 11555397
    Abstract: Methods and systems for determining wellpath tortuosity are disclosed. In accordance with an embodiment, a tortuosity of a borehole segment is determined and a tortuosity of a casing associated with the borehole segment is determined based, at least in part, on the tortuosity of the borehole segment and a path conformity characteristic of the casing. A tortuosity variation factor is generated based on a value of the tortuosity of the casing relative to a value of the tortuosity of the borehole segment.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 14, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 17, 2023
    Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation
    Inventor: Robello Samuel
  • Patent number: 11525352
    Abstract: A method may include obtaining a request to determine automatically a depth of a formation top for a well in a geological region of interest. The method may include obtaining various well logs regarding the well and various wells in the geological region of interest. The method may include determining various depth values using the various well logs and a statistical interpolation method. The method may further include determining a final depth of the well using the various depth values and a searching method.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 30, 2020
    Date of Patent: December 13, 2022
    Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Marwah Al Ismail, Mokhles M. Mezghani
  • Patent number: 11493393
    Abstract: An in-situ stress measurement method is provided. The method includes measuring a length of a maximum diameter at which an amount of distortion relative to a diameter of a standard circle of a measurement cross section of a boring core is largest and a length of a minimum diameter at which the amount of distortion relative to the diameter of the standard circle is smallest based on a shape of the measurement cross section of the boring core; measuring a length of a diameter in a vertical direction and a length of a diameter in a horizontal direction of the measurement cross section of a side-wall core acquired by hollowing ground in a well in an excavation direction thereof, based on a shape of the measurement cross section of the side-wall core; and calculating a maximum horizontal stress and a minimum horizontal stress by first and second equations.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 6, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 8, 2022
    Assignees: JAPAN PETROLEUM EXPLORATION CO., LTD., TOHOKU UNIVERSITY
    Inventors: Takatoshi Ito, Kazuhiko Tezuka, Tetsuya Tamagawa
  • Patent number: 11474270
    Abstract: An acquisition system is configured to acquire seismic data representing a subsurface formation during a fracking process. The system includes at least one acoustic sensor that is configured to obtain vibration data representing vibrations relating to three orthogonal directions relative to the at least one acoustic sensor. The system is configured to receive the vibration data from the at least one acoustic sensor, identify one or more resonance frequencies represented in the vibration data, determine, based on the identified one or more resonance frequencies, a stage of a fracking process being performed, identify, based on the stage of the fracking process that is identified, a feature of one or more fractures in a borehole that is configured for the fracking process, and generate a seismic image of the subsurface formation based on the feature of the one or more fractures.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Yujin Liu, Yue Du, Tong Wang Fei, Yi Luo
  • Patent number: 11474277
    Abstract: A method and apparatus of logging downhole formation and obtaining formation porosity using a pulsed neutron generator and multiple dual-function detectors that detect both neutrons and gamma rays. Ratios of thermal neutrons, epithermal neutrons, and capture gamma rays from multiple detectors are utilized to obtain neutron porosity, gamma porosity and formation porosity by using a trained neural network. The method can provide formation porosity measurements independent of environmental factors, such as borehole size, tool standoff, salinity, temperature, pressure, etc. Effects from environmental factors can be automatically corrected by employing multiple dual-function detectors that detect both neutrons and gamma rays.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 2, 2021
    Date of Patent: October 18, 2022
    Assignee: CHINA PETROLEUM & CHEMICAL CORPORATION
    Inventors: Sheng Zhan, Jeremy Zhang
  • Patent number: 11454112
    Abstract: A method of rock typing includes obtaining mercury injection capillary pressure (MICP) data regarding a region of interest. A distance matrix is computed for distributions determined from the MICP data using a statistical distance metric. A cluster tree of the distributions is generated using the distance matrix. The cluster tree is adjusted based on a petrographic characteristic to produce an adjusted cluster tree, which is used to determine a pore structure types of the region of interest.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 27, 2022
    Assignee: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
    Inventors: Ming Zhang, Hongwen Zhao, Yufeng Cui, David Amendt, Peng Lu
  • Patent number: 11414990
    Abstract: A method of predicting behavior or a degradable device of a borehole tool when deployed downhole including introducing a test mass of material identical to the material of the degradable device to the same general location and at a time near to when the degradable device is deployed, removing the test mass from downhole, determining characteristics related to degradation of the test mass, and predicting degradation behavior of the degradable device based on the determined characteristics.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 16, 2022
    Assignee: BAKER HUGHES OILFIELD OPERATIONS LLC
    Inventors: Aaron Edward Young, Ricardo Arturo Barker Gomez
  • Patent number: 11401798
    Abstract: A method of geosteering in a wellbore construction process uses an earth model that defines boundaries between formation layers and petrophysical properties of the formation layers in a subterranean formation. Sensor measurements related to the wellbore construction process are inputted to the earth model. An estimate is obtained for a relative geometrical and geological placement of the well path with respect to a geological objective using a trained stochastic clustering and pattern matching agent. An output action based on the sensor measurement for influencing a future profile of the well path with respect to the estimate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 30, 2019
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: SHELL USA, INC.
    Inventors: Neilkunal Panchal, Sami Mohammed Khair Sultan, Mingqi Wu
  • Patent number: 11401799
    Abstract: Drill strings with probe deployment structures, hydrocarbon wells that include the drill strings, and methods of utilizing the drill strings are disclosed herein. The drill strings include a pipe string and a drill bit attached to the pipe string. The drill strings also include a probe deployment structure attached to the pipe string and a downhole communication device attached to the pipe string. The probe deployment structure includes a probe and is configured to selectively insert the probe into a subterranean formation via a wellbore of the hydrocarbon well. The probe is configured to measure at least one property of the subterranean formation. The downhole communication device is configured to communicate with the probe. The hydrocarbon wells include a drill string support structure, which supports the drill string, a wellbore extending within a subsurface region, and the drill string extending within the wellbore.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 23, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company
    Inventors: Kevin H. Searles, Prajnajyoti Mazumdar, Ted A. Long
  • Patent number: 11385214
    Abstract: An elemental analysis of rock samples from outcrop sections or wells is performed. Data quality checks, data analysis, and filtering are performed on the rock samples, including de-spiking of elemental profiles and elemental ratios. First and second derivatives for the elemental profiles and the elemental ratios are calculated. Samples and depths that exceed thresholds are determined. The process is repeated for the elemental profiles and the elemental ratios that are related with boundary determination and carbonate or siliciclastic sediments. Additional filters are applied to at least a subset of the elemental profiles and elemental ratios that are related with boundary determination and carbonate or siliciclastic sediments to enhance the boundary identification. Possible boundaries in depths of the outcrop sections or wells are determined by summarizing the additionally filtered elemental profiles and the additionally filtered elemental ratios.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 13, 2018
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2022
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Nikolaos A. Michael, Neil W. Craigie, Christian Scheibe, Rainer Zuhlke
  • Patent number: 11365627
    Abstract: A method, including disposing a probe of a sensor system in a wellbore to interact with a formation fluid that includes a mud filtrate and a clean fluid that includes one of a formation water, or a formation hydrocarbon fluid including at least one hydrocarbon component. The method includes collecting multiple measurements of a formation fluid from a wellbore, the formation fluid comprising a mud filtrate and a clean fluid, is provided. The clean fluid includes at least one hydrocarbon component, and the method also include identifying a concentration of the mud filtrate and a concentration of the clean fluid in the formation fluid for one of the measurements, and determining at least one hydrocarbon composition and at least one physical property of the clean fluid based on a measurement fingerprint of the hydrocarbon components. A sensor system configured to perform a method as above is also provided.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 27, 2018
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Bin Dai, Christopher Michael Jones, Dingding Chen
  • Patent number: 11352875
    Abstract: A downhole gauge device for use in a well is described. The downhole gauge device includes one or more electrical systems including at least one measurement means for obtaining measurement data and a data transmitting means configured to transmit measurement data to a receiving station; a first power supply configured to supply a first amount of power to any of the one or more electrical systems; a second power supply configured to supply a second amount of power that is greater than the first amount of power to any of the one or more electrical systems; and means for selectively enabling one or both of the first and second power supply.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 1, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 7, 2022
    Assignee: Expro North Sea Limited
    Inventors: Samuel Keith Taylor, Alexandra Vasil'Evna Rogacheva
  • Patent number: 11285673
    Abstract: Systems and methods for machine-learning-based additive manufacturing use a machine-learning model to process an input vector describing a new part transaction, thereby providing part optimization outputs and command initiation outputs to configure additive manufacturing of a new part. The machine-learning model is trained based on entries in a user experience database, each entry in the user experience database including data defining requirements for an additively manufactured part previously fabricated or attempted to be fabricated, specifications describing an additive manufacturing fabrication device, a selection of a raw material type fed to the fabrication device for fabrication of the additively manufactured part, a fabrication spatial orientation of the additively manufactured part within the fabrication device, a fabrication slicing resolution of the additively manufactured part, and a toolpath taken by the fabrication device in fabricating the additively manufactured part.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 29, 2022
    Assignee: NORTHROP GRUMMAN SYSTEMS CORPORATION
    Inventor: Padmanabhan Nilakantan
  • Patent number: 11269098
    Abstract: The disclosure relates generally to the inversion of geophysical and/or logging measurements for formation evaluation and monitoring. The disclosure may be related to methods of deconvolution and/or inversion of piecewise formation properties. A method for formation evaluation from a downhole tool may comprise disposing a downhole tool into a wellbore, broadcasting a signal into a formation penetrated by the wellbore, recording the signal from the formation with at least one receiver disposed on the downhole tool, computing an objective function, and determining formation properties by minimizing the objective function.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiang Wu, Mark Elliott Willis, Wei-Bin Ewe, Glenn Andrew Wilson
  • Patent number: 11269110
    Abstract: Computing system assessment of geological similarity of wells employing well-log data includes receiving logs with chronostratigraphic markers, and extracting signatures from the logs using the chronostratigraphic markers. A distance matrix is generated from the signatures using dynamic time warping. Using the distance matrix, a set of clusters are generated. The set of clusters are presented with an image.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 5, 2018
    Date of Patent: March 8, 2022
    Assignee: Schlumberger Technology Corporation
    Inventors: Sergey Doronichev, Velizar Vesselinov, Valerian Guillot, Xiaotong Suo
  • Patent number: 11262471
    Abstract: A method includes receiving a first transition probability matrix (TPM) of a subsurface region, wherein the TPM defines, for a given lithology at a current depth sample (or micro-layer), a probability of particular lithologies at a next depth sample (or micro-layer), receiving seismic data for the subsurface region, utilizing the first TPM and the seismic data to generate first pseudo wells, calculating a second TPM from the first pseudo wells, determining whether the second TPM is consistent with the first TPM, and utilizing the first pseudo wells to characterize a reservoir in the subsurface region when the second TPM is determined to be consistent with the first TPM.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 1, 2022
    Assignee: BP CORPORATION NORTH AMERICA INC.
    Inventors: Jingfeng Zhang, Matthew Walker
  • Patent number: 11249210
    Abstract: A method and system for processing a slowness profile. A method may comprise disposing a geophone array into a borehole, positioning the geophone array at a first location within the borehole; discharging a seismic source; positioning the geophone array at a second location within the borehole; discharging the seismic source, wherein the seismic source produces an acoustic wave; recording a vertical seismic profiling dataset, wherein vertical seismic profiling comprises a dataset of recorded acoustic waves by the geophone array at the first location within the borehole and the second location within the borehole; picking a first gap travel time from the vertical seismic profiling dataset; and determining the slowness profile, wherein the slowness profile comprises determining a slowness of the acoustic wave through a formation by the geophone arrays. A well system may comprise a geophone array, comprising a plurality of geophones, and an information handling system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 29, 2016
    Date of Patent: February 15, 2022
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Xiang Wu, Mark Elliott Willis, Oscar Augusto Barrios
  • Patent number: 11220898
    Abstract: Well logs can be automatically correlated using dynamic warping with descriptors. For example, a computing device can receive user input indicating a manual correlation between a first node in a first well-log and a second node in a second well-log. The computing device can use the manual correlation to automatically determine a combination of descriptors usable to correlate the first node to the second node. The computing device can then perform dynamic warping on other well logs using the combination of descriptors determined by using the first well log and the second well log. This may provide more accurate correlations between well logs.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 31, 2017
    Date of Patent: January 11, 2022
    Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation
    Inventors: Ahinoam Pollack, Yang Peng, Kainan Wang, Ming-Kang Shih, Krisha Hansel Tracy, Jesse Mathias Lomask
  • Patent number: 11215732
    Abstract: Methods and devices for estimating at least one property of a volume of interest of an earth formation from a radiation based measurement. Methods include using an optimization procedure to determine an optimal mineralogical model in dependence upon a secondary dependence relation between tool measurements, the mineralogical model including a mineralogical composition of the volume. The secondary dependence relation may include a relation between a plurality of estimated elemental concentrations for the volume. The mineralogical composition may include a concentration of each mineral of a plurality of minerals of the volume. The relation may include a ratio of a first elemental concentration of the plurality of estimated elemental concentrations and a second elemental concentration of the plurality of estimated elemental concentrations. Methods may include using at least one cost function to determine the optimal mineralogical model, wherein the at least one cost function is determined using the relation.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: BAKER HUGHES HOLDINGS LLC
    Inventors: Freddy Mendez, Hao Zhang, John Longo, Eliseo Rodriguez
  • Patent number: 11215035
    Abstract: Methods may include calculating a formation permeability for a subterranean formation from a combination of dielectric measurements and acoustic measurements, wherein the formation permeability is calculated according to the formula: kg=a(Vx?w/?r)b, where Vx is either Vp, Vs, or Vp/Vs, ? is formation conductivity, Øw is water-filled porosity, and a and b are constants that are empirically determined for the frequency selected with respect to Vx; and creating a design for a wellbore operation from the calculated formation permeability. Methods may also include obtaining a dielectric measurement from a downhole formation; obtaining an acoustic measurement from a downhole formation; and calculating a formation permeability from a combination of the dielectric measurement and the acoustic measurement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 7, 2018
    Date of Patent: January 4, 2022
    Assignee: SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Salah Mohammed Al-Ofi, Wael Abdallah, Mohammed Badri
  • Patent number: 11199640
    Abstract: For a specified stratigraphic interval, well data is received for a plurality of wells. An average grain size for each of the plurality of wells is determined based on the received data. A location or multiple locations of a grain source is determined based on the average grain sizes for the stratigraphic interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2017
    Date of Patent: December 14, 2021
    Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
    Inventors: Nikolaos A. Michael, Christos Saragiotis
  • Patent number: 11174718
    Abstract: Systems, devices, and methods for generating steering instructions to directing the operation of a drilling system are provided. The systems, devices, and methods may include determining an optimized path to navigate a Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA) to a steering target using one or more steering methods, such as straight line projections, rotary drilling projections, True Vertical Depth, Inclination, and Azimuth (TIA) calculations, and three dimensional “J” (3DJ) calculations, and driving the BHA to the steering target using the optimized path.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 20, 2017
    Date of Patent: November 16, 2021
    Assignee: NABORS DRILLING TECHNOLOGIES USA, INC.
    Inventor: Colin J. Gillan
  • Patent number: 11156082
    Abstract: A method includes operating a downhole acquisition tool in a wellbore in a geological formation and performing formation testing to determine at least one measurement associated within the formation, the wellbore, or both. The tool may include sensors to detect measurements including, for example, formation pressure and/or wellbore pressure. The tool may also include a processor to obtain at least one spectral characteristic associated with the measurement, which may include frequencies of oscillation. The processor may also determine one or more parameters, associated with an oscillation suppression process, based on the spectral characteristic and remove oscillations, including noise associated with fluctuations of a fluid level in the wellbore, in the measurement based on the parameters. Petrophysical parameters may be estimated based on the modified measurement.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 21, 2018
    Date of Patent: October 26, 2021
    Assignee: SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Jiyao Li, Terizhandur S. Ramakrishnan
  • Patent number: 11126447
    Abstract: A system and method for facilitating a user to initiate and accept an assistance request through a chat session is disclosed. Controls may be provided in a graphical chat interface to enable the user to specify inputs to request assistance from other users participating in the chat session. An assistance request may be generated and communicated to those users through the chat session. Graphical representation for the assistance request and controls that facilitate the users to accept the assistance request may be provided in the graphical chat interface. Upon an acceptance to the assistance request by a responding user through the graphical chat interface, an assistance command may be generated and executed in the virtual space.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 16, 2020
    Date of Patent: September 21, 2021
    Assignee: Kabam, Inc.
    Inventors: Matthew Curtis, James Koh, Kellen Christopher Smalley, Michael C. Caldarone
  • Patent number: 11105948
    Abstract: A method and system for detecting an anomaly in measurement data captured by a downhole tool is disclosed provided. In the method and system, measurement data comprising a plurality of measurement channels is obtained and reference data including healthy reference data and faulty reference data is also obtained. The measurement data is preprocessed by modeling at least one measurement channel of the plurality of measurement channels using modeling parameters to produce pre-processed measurement data. Further, a first distance between the pre-processed measurement data and the healthy reference data is obtained and determined to exceed a first threshold for the first distance. A report is generated in response to determining that the first distance exceeds the first threshold. The report indicates detection of the anomaly in the measurement data.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 26, 2016
    Date of Patent: August 31, 2021
    Assignee: SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Bo Hu, Mark Flaum, Jane Troutner
  • Patent number: 11035223
    Abstract: The proposed method relates to hydrocarbon production, particularly to the monitoring of well operations by way of data analysis based on the cepstral analysis of the well pressure data recorded at the wellhead. The method assumes the detection of a hydraulic signal-reflecting object in the well, wherein: a fluid-filled well is provided with fluid enabling propagation of a hydraulic signal; a hydraulic signal source is provided, said source being in fluid communication with the well and designed to generate a hydraulic signal; a pressure sensor is provided, said pressure sensor records the hydraulic signal and being in fluid communication with the well and at least one hydraulic signal source. The hydraulic signal is recorded with the pressure sensor during well operations, and a pressure cepstrogram is obtained and an intense signal is found on the pressure cepstrogram. Then the position of object reflecting the hydraulic signal is detected in the well.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 1, 2016
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Schulumberger Technology Corporation
    Inventor: Artem Valeryevich Kabannik
  • Patent number: 11035978
    Abstract: An x-ray-based reservoir evaluation tool for the measurement of the shale density anticipated at shale-creep barrier within a cased borehole is disclosed, wherein the tool includes an internal length comprising a sonde section, wherein the sonde section further includes an x-ray source; a plurality of radiation measuring detectors; sonde-dependent electronics; and a plurality of tool logic electronics and PSUs. A method of using an x-ray-based shale-seal evaluation tool for measuring the shale density anticipated at shale-creep barrier within a cased borehole is also disclosed, the method including: using x-rays to illuminate the formation surrounding the cased borehole; using detectors to directly measure the density of the formation; using detectors to directly measure the effects on the measurement from tool stand-off or production liner attenuation; and compensating for the production liner and liner-annular region when computing the saturated formation density within the production interval.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 3, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 15, 2021
    Assignee: Visuray Intech Ltd. (BVI)
    Inventors: Philip Teague, Melissa Spannuth, Dimitrios Pirovolou
  • Patent number: 11016210
    Abstract: An illustrative hydraulic fracture mapping method includes: collecting microseismic signals during a multistage hydraulic fracturing operation; deriving microseismic event locations from the microseismic signals to create a microseismic event map for each stage of the operation; fitting a set of fracture planes to the microseismic event maps; determining a stimulated reservoir volume (“SRV”) region for each said stage; identifying where SRV regions overlap to form an overlap region; partitioning the overlap region to eliminate any overlap between the SRV regions; truncating the set of fracture planes for the SRV regions to discard any portion outside the revised SRV regions; and storing or displaying the truncated set of fracture planes for the first revised SRV region.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 19, 2015
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventors: Jianfu Ma, Jie Bai, Ken Huang
  • Patent number: 10989831
    Abstract: A method and system can include a sensor positioned in a borehole, characteristics of the earthen formation can be measured and logged by the sensor, and an effective permeability can be determined based on the logged characteristics. Multi-component induction (MCI) data can be measured by a logging tool, 3D resistivity components can be determined by inverting the MCI data, and the 3D resistivity components can be logged. Tri-axial permeability components can be determined based on the effective permeability and the 3D resistivity component logs. A permeability of sand in the earthen formation can be determined based on the tri-axial permeability components, the effective permeability, and a laminated shale volume. The sand permeability can be logged and modifications to operation(s) can be initiated based on the sand permeability.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 14, 2016
    Date of Patent: April 27, 2021
    Assignee: Halliburton Energy Services, Inc.
    Inventor: Junsheng Hou
  • Patent number: 10947836
    Abstract: The present invention provides a device and a method for measuring overburden of injected gas in cyclic gas injection development of condensate gas reservoir. The device comprises sand packed model and temperature control system. The temperature control system is nested outside the sand packed model. The sand packed model comprises sand pack cell, four gas inlets, four gas outlets, bracket, direction control component, rotating shaft, upper cover, lower cover, fixing bolts, two top pressuring inlets, pressure transmission rods, pressure transfer piston and multiple gas sampling ports. The sand pack cell can be filled with quartz sand of different particle size and composition, and the angle of the whole device is adjusted by the direction control component.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 29, 2020
    Date of Patent: March 16, 2021
    Assignee: UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY BEIJING
    Inventors: Weiyao Zhu, Kun Huang, Jing Xia, Tongwen Jiang, Ming Yue, Kai Luo, Zhiyong Song, Baichuan Wang, Debin Kong
  • Patent number: 10941655
    Abstract: A method includes operating a downhole acquisition tool in a wellbore in a geological formation. The wellbore or the geological formation, or both, contains a fluid that includes a native reservoir fluid of the geological formation and a contaminant. The method also includes receiving a portion of the fluid into the downhole acquisition tool, obtaining a measured resistivity, a measured conductivity, or both of the portion of the fluid using the downhole acquisition tool, and using a processor of the downhole acquisition tool to obtain a temperature-corrected resistivity, a temperature-corrected conductivity, or both based on a downhole temperature of the portion of the fluid and the measured resistivity, the measured conductivity, or both.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 4, 2015
    Date of Patent: March 9, 2021
    Assignee: SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: Adriaan Gisolf, Lei Jiang, Anthony Robert Holmes Goodwin, Youxiang Zuo
  • Patent number: 10935682
    Abstract: A seismic system that includes a seismic source configured to generate a first seismic signal and a second seismic signal in a formation adjacent the seismic source. A first downhole sensing device disposed in a first borehole configured to detect the first seismic signal and the second seismic signal in the formation; and a first surface acquisition system is in communication with the first downhole sensing device. The first surface acquisition system is configured to: determine a first reference transit time based at least in part on detection of the first seismic signal by the first downhole sensing device; a first subsequent transit time based at least in part on detection of the second seismic signal by the first downhole sensing device; and whether a synchronization variation is expected to be present based at least in part on the first reference transit time and the first subsequent transit time.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 22, 2017
    Date of Patent: March 2, 2021
    Assignee: SCHLUMBERGER TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION
    Inventors: William Brian Underhill, Joel Herve Le Calvez, Herve Denaclara
  • Patent number: 10921960
    Abstract: Methods, computer readable medium, and systems for mapping geologic features are described. In one example, a selection of a template describing a theoretical geologic depositional profile is received. In addition, paleo-elevations and/or paleo-depths of actual geologic facies in an actual geologic depositional profile are received. A graphical map that represents the actual geologic depositional profile is generated by mapping the received paleo-elevations and/or paleo-depths onto the theoretical depositional profile.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: July 22, 2011
    Date of Patent: February 16, 2021
    Assignee: Landmark Graphics Corporation
    Inventors: William C. Ross, Richard L. Chambers
  • Patent number: 10914166
    Abstract: A system, assembly, module, and method are disclosed for powering a downhole tool in a drilling operation. The system may include a reusable battery module and/or controller to operate multiple batteries.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 10, 2018
    Date of Patent: February 9, 2021
    Assignee: APS Technology, Inc.
    Inventor: Michael Pomerleau
  • Patent number: 10907473
    Abstract: A method includes analyzing a carbonaceous deposit for an asphaltene content from a hydrocarbon-containing fluid located in a well, a wellhead or a production line proximate the wellhead, and applying one or more preventative measures to the hydrocarbon-containing fluid located in the well, the wellhead or the production line proximate the wellhead based on the asphaltene content.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 2017
    Date of Patent: February 2, 2021
    Assignee: Chevron U.S.A., Inc.
    Inventors: Estrella Rogel, Cesar Ovalles, Michael Moir