Abstract: Disclosed is an extended shaft collar comprising a reinforced concrete collar which extends from the surface to below a groundwater formation, providing an impenetrable barrier between the surrounding groundwater formations and the work area within the shaft. The extended shaft collar of the present invention provides a barrier to the ground and the work area of a shaft, including the prevention of contamination of shallow groundwater of the surrounding formations from the activities of the shaft, and may further be used for emergency shaft purposes. Concrete utilized in the extended collar may be comprised of conventional cements as well as specialty cements. The disclosed extended shaft collar supports a wide variety of scenarios for heavy civil construction projects, oil and gas production and mining, including subterranean oil recovery platforms and related products and services where shallow groundwater reservoirs are located.

Abstract: A system for extracting crude oil is discussed herein. The system includes a main shaft and one or more horizontal drifts extending from the base of the main shaft, which are located subjacent or below a reservoir trap or oil formation. A plurality of production boreholes are drilled upwardly from the horizontal drift towards the reservoir trap to gather the oil mixture and direct it to flow, either by gravity or from reservoir pressure at an angle towards the drifts below the formation. A manifold or distribution system located in the one or more horizontal drifts collect flow from the plurality of production boreholes. The collected flow is either pumped or lifted to the surface for separation, treatment, and/or processing or alternatively treated before pumped or lifted to the surface.

Abstract: A method and system for excluding restoral routes from use in bypassing a failed component. Prior to failure of a segment, the restoration system identifies each path in the communications network. A path is a unique sequence of installations that a segment traverses. The restoration system then creates a mapping of the ports of the restoration nodes to the paths of the segments connected to each port. The restoration system then identifies for each path the set of paths that are interdependent. A pair of paths are interdependent when both paths traverse a common pair of installations. Following failure of a segment, the restoration system uses the port on which the failure was detected and uses the mapping to identify the path of the segment that failed. The restoration system then excludes each restoral route that includes a segment that has a path that is interdependent with the identified path.

Abstract: In a restoration network including a distributed restoration algorithm (DRA) enabled network of a telecommunications network, path verification messages are embedded onto traffic bearing signals entering the network and removed from the signals leaving the network. By adding path verification messages to the signals that traverse within the DRA enabled network, the integrity of any communications path that interconnects the various nodes within the restoration network are confirmed. Further, by removing the path verification messages from the signals leaving the restoration network, equipment outside the restoration network are spared of any possibility that their operations may be affected by the path verification messages.

Abstract: A method and system for initiating distributed restoration of a communications network following the failure of one or more network components. Restoration is conducted in a distributed fashion by all the restoration nodes of the network. When a restoration node detects failure of a segment connected to it, the restoration node monitors its segments for a period of time and then sends a failure message to other restoration nodes of the network indicating the number of segments connected to it that have failed. When restoration nodes receive failure messages, they compare the count of failed segments contained in the messages to a range of counts of failures for the detecting node that are locally stored on each restoration node. By this comparison, the restoration nodes can determine whether the network has quiesced to a relatively stable state following a network outage. Once the network has reached a stable state, all the restoration nodes simultaneously initiate a local restoration process.

Abstract: A distributed method and system for excluding segments from use in bypassing a failed component. Prior to failure of a segment, the restoration system at a central location identifies each path in the communications network. A path is a unique sequence of installations that a segment traverses. The restoration system then creates a mapping of the ports of the restoration nodes to the paths of the segments connected to each port. The restoration system then identifies for each path the set of paths that are interdependent. A pair of paths are interdependent when both paths traverse a common pair of installations. The restoration system then downloads to each restoration node the mappings for its ports along with an indication of the paths that are interdependent with the path of each segment connected to the restoration node.