Abstract: The method uses the image obtained by accumulating continuity curves representative of seismic horizons so as to determine the geological strata constituting the seismic section, such as they were deposited and not such as they are observed today. To do this, the method defines a transformation of the vertical scale of the seismic section, scale measured in seismic times, into a geological vertical scale measured in geological times. This transformation is based on an equalization of histograms. Starting from equalized histograms, the method makes it possible to determine equalized seismic sections which are used to determine the rates of sedimentation which governed the depositions of geological strata. In particular, it highlights geological hiatuses, that is to say erosions and gaps.

Abstract: The invention concerns an AC electric motor (1) comprising a stator magnetic circuit including a first part (2) whereon are mounted electrical windings (7 and 8) and a second recessed part (10) wherein is mounted a rotor (14). The invention is characterized in that the first part (2) of the stator magnetic circuit and the electrical windings (7 and 8) are mounted inside a stator chamber (20) with sealed wall, the second part (10) of the stator magnetic circuit, the cylindrical rotor (14) being located outside said chamber. The invention is applicable in the oil industry for pumping fluids in bottom holes producing hydrocarbons in liquid, gas or polyphase form and in chemical and nuclear industries for pumping dangerous or chemically harmful fluids.

Abstract: The invention relates to a device for the elimination of gas or paraffin hydrate deposits that form in well drilling equipment or hydrocarbon production and transportation equipment through the use of a reactant that is likely to decompose at high temperatures.

Abstract: Method for determining at least one optimal trajectory between a point and a target situated in a medium and forming a centered volume, the position of each of whose points is known with geometrical uncertainties, characterized in that it consists in defining for the centered volume a gain which takes different values from the center to the peripheral boundary, and a zero value outside the centered volume; in determining a statistically significant number of instances of the positions of the centered volume as a function of the geometrical uncertainties which affect it, and in determining an aggregate gain at each point; in defining a volume of interest, site of the points with positive aggregate gains in the medium; in defining curvilinear trajectories between at least one entry point and at least one exit point of the said volume of interest; in integrating the aggregate gain along each of the said curvilinear trajectories in such a way as to obtain a profit associated with each trajectory, and in retaining

Abstract: The invention concerns a method for detecting geological discontinuity in an environment using an optical flow. The method includes the steps of selecting in the seismic block a section containing at least one discontinuity. The section constitutes a seismic image. The method includes computing a rough optical flow on the seismic image to obtain a first representation of an optical flow wherein the discontinuity constitutes a moving front. The method also includes smoothing, by a non-supervised dynamic cluster process, the optical flow representation so as to obtain a second optical flow representation wherein the discontinuity shows accentuated contrasts.

Abstract: Process for using biodegradable drilling muds, characterized in that a able surface sludge which is stable up to about 100° C., with an adjustable filtrate-reducing power of from 2 to 13 cm3 depending on the amount of filtrate-reducing agent used, and with an electrical stability of greater than or equal to 1000 volts, is introduced into the well at the start of drilling, and in that, when the temperature of the terrain passed through reaches 100° C., the surface sludge is replaced with a bottom sludge which is stable at a temperature above 200° C., the volume of the surface sludge representing from 60 to 80% by volume relative to the total volume of sludge used.

Abstract: Method of detecting chaotic structures in a given medium. It is of the type consisting in: calculating the components of the light intensity gradient vector E at every point of a window F, centered on a point of a block representative of the medium, and it is characterized in that it furthermore consists in summing elementary matrices M for all the points of the window F, diagonalizing said sum matrix A so as to determine its eigenvalues &lgr;1, &lgr;2, &lgr;3, quantifying, at the center of the window, the minimum of the said eigenvalues &lgr;1, &lgr;2, &lgr;3, and with the constraint UT×D=1, eliminating the contribution of the largest eigenvalue, defining a multidirectional error by integrating it in the plane defined by the eigenvectors corresponding to the remaining eigenvalues, assigning the multidirectional error to the image point on which the window F is centered, and calculating the multidirectional errors assigned to all the image points of the image block.

Abstract: A method for detecting inflow of fluid in a well while drilling, wherein the drilling is carried out using an installation including a hollow cylindrical drill string (3) wherein is injected fresh mud, a tubing (5) defining with the drill string (3) an annular space (7) through which the loaded mud rises; it involves continuously measuring a heat flow; then continuously calculating on the basis of the quantity the value of a characteristic representing a thermal equilibrium obtained in the absence of a fluid occurrence formation; and detecting variations in the characteristic, the variations representing a thermal imbalance, resulting from inflow of fluid in the well (1). The invention is particular by applicable in operating oil drilling installations particularly deep at sea.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method for the detection of sulphate-reducing bacteria in a sample which is likely to contain them, the said method comprising the extraction of the DNA or of the RNA from the said sample and the detection of at least one fragment of the APS reductase gene or at least one fragment of the mRNA transcribed from the APS reductase gene, an indicator of the presence of sulphate-reducing bacteria in the said sample.

Abstract: A process is provided to recover residual H2S, SO2, COS and CS2 in the tail gas from a sulphur recovery process. The tail gas is oxidized and hydrolyzed at a temperature of from 180° C. to 700° C. to provide an oxidized and hydrolyzed gas stream containing substantially no COS or CS2 and having a concentration by volume of H2S and SO2 such that the H2S concentration minus twice the SO2 concentration is from 0.25% to 0.5%. Then the gas stream from the hydrolysis is passed over a Claus catalyst, for example based on alumina and/or titanium oxide, for the reaction of H2S with SO2 to form sulphur and provide a gas stream with substantially no SO2.

Abstract: Method of producing impact point position probability maps for a well. It consists in defining a fixed, invariant target point chosen a priori on an initial location E0 of the surface S, discretizing the surface S with the aid of a grid composed of nodes and of grid cells, assigning at least one elementary geometrical uncertainty vector to each node of the grid of the surface S, determining a statistically significant number of occurrences of locations of the surface S as a function of the geometrical uncertainties affecting it, projecting the target point onto each occurrence of location of the surface so as to deduce a point of impact therefrom, transferring the set of impact points onto the location E0 of the surface S by allocating, to each of these points, surface co-ordinates identical to those which it had on the occurrence of location of the surface containing it.

Abstract: A biodegradable drilling mud, comprising a water/organic phase reverse emulsion in a volume ratio ranging from 50/50 to 10/90, which contains: a) from 1 to 5% by volume of at least one nitrogen compound selected from the group consisting of amino acids, carbamic mono- and polyamides and mono- and polycarbamic amides, of formulae (I) and (II) respectively, taken alone or as a mixture: R—[NH—CH2]n—CO—NH2  (I) R—NH—[CO—NH]m—H  (II)  wherein R is hydrogen or an alkyl group comprising from 1 to 10 carbon atoms and n and m are integers ranging from 1 to 5, b) from 2 to 10% by volume of at least one phosphorus derivative selected from the group consisting of surfactant phosphorus compounds, and c) from 2 to 10% by volume of at least one oxygenated compound selected from the group consisting of fatty acids, fatty acid esters of fatty alcohols comprising carbon-based chains comprising from 12 to 24 carbon atoms, alone or

Abstract: A process for catalytically oxidizing H2S contained in a gas directly to sulphur containing the following steps: combining the H2S-containing gas with a gas containing free oxygen in an amount to produce an oxygen-enriched H2S-containing gas having O2/H2S molar ratio ranging from about 0.05 to about 15; and contacting the oxygen-enriched H2S-containing gas with a catalyst for selective oxidation of H2S to sulphur, wherein the catalyst includes a catalytically active phase combined with a silicon carbide-based support and wherein the active phase of the catalyst consists of at least one oxysulphide of at least one metal selected from the group consisting of iron, copper, nickel, cobalt, chromium, molybdenum and tungsten, at a temperature above the dew point of sulphur formed during H2S oxidation.

Abstract: Method of detecting breaks in logging signals consisting of logs of different kinds recorded as a function of depth, of the type consisting in selecting a portion from each of the said logs in such a way that all the selected portions have a same depth interval in common, one of the selected portions being regarded as reference portion; selecting a parent wavelet function and constructing, from the said parent function, a family of wavelet analysis functions dependent on spatial frequency and on depth, the said method being characterized in that it furthermore consists in calculating, for each portion of log selected and for each depth datum, the absolute value of the mean gradient of the characteristic quantity of the wavelet transform for the various spatial analysis frequencies; selecting, for each portion of log processed, the peaks of the absolute value of the mean gradient of the characteristic quantity.

Abstract: An analyzer for continuously measuring the H2S content of a gas stream which utilizes a drying module for drying the gas, a compressor for compressing the gas, a means for diluting the compressed sample and an electrical chemical sensor. The invention is also a device for regulating the flow rate of air to a H2S oxidation system which utilizes the analyzer to control the ratio of air to H2S stream entering the process.

Abstract: Process for destroying a rigid thermal insulator obtained in particular by a process of the sol-gel type and positioned in a confined space, the process comprising the stage of introducing a dissolving liquid into the confined space in order to convert the insulator into a liquid phase. The process applies in particular to destroying an insulating jacket positioned in the annular space of an oil well.

Abstract: The method uses the image obtained by accumulating continuity curves representative of seismic horizons so as to determine the geological strata constituting the seismic section, such as they were deposited and not such as they are observed today. To do this, the method defines a transformation of the vertical scale of the seismic section, scale measured in seismic times, into a geological vertical scale measured in geological times. This transformation is based on an equalization of histograms. Starting from equalized histograms, the method makes it possible to determine equalized seismic sections which are used to determine the rates of sedimentation which governed the depositions of geological strata. In particular, it highlights geological hiatuses, that is to say erosions and gaps.

Abstract: An apparatus and method for obtaining facies of geological formations for identifying mineral deposits is disclosed. Logging instruments are moved in a bore hole to produce log measurements at successive levels of the bore hole. The set of measurements at each such level of the bore hole interval is associated with reference sample points within a multidimensional space. The multidimensional scatter of sample points thus obtained is analyzed to determine a set of characteristic modes. The sample points associated with characteristic modes are grouped to identify clusters. A facies is designated for each of the clusters and a graphic representation of the succession of facies as a function of the depth is thus obtained. To identify the clusters, a “neighboring index” of each log measurement point in the data set is calculated. Next, small natural groups of points are formed based on the use of the neighboring index to determine a K-Nearest-Neighbor (KNN) attraction for each point.

Abstract: The invention relates to a method for controlling a liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons production well (1) activated by injection of gas, the well comprising a production string (2) fitted with an adjustable-aperture outlet choke (9), into which gas, the flow rate of which can be adjusted by means of a control valve (6), is injected, the method being characterized in that it comprises a start-up phase which consists in performing the following sequence of steps: a step of initiating the production of hydrocarbons a step of ramping up to production speed followed by a production phase, during which phases the outlet choke (9) and the control valve (6) are operated in such a way as to maintain the stability of the flow rate of the produced hydrocarbons.

Abstract: A regenerative process for deacidification of a gas containing CO2 and liquid hydrocarbons including contacting the gas to be treated, in an absorption zone, with an absorbent liquid including methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) and an accelerator of absorption of CO2 by the amine, thereby producing a treated gas with reduced CO2 content and an absorbent liquid loaded with CO2, subjecting the loaded absorbent liquid to a regeneration treatment to release CO2 which it has bound, to produce 1) at least one acid gas fraction rich in CO2 and 2) at least one regenerated absorbent liquid; and recycling into the absorption zone the at least one regenerated absorbent liquid, wherein the overall liquid hydrocarbon content in the gas to be deacidified containing CO2 is greater than 14 liters of liquid hydrocarbons per million standard cubic meters of gas, and the activator combined with methyldiethanolamine in the absorbent liquid brought into contact with the gas containing CO2 and liquid hydrocarbons consists of at least one