Hazard avoidance analysis
AssigneeSchlumberger Technology Corporation
InventorPETER GERHARD TILKE
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method, apparatus and program product utilize infeasible regions projected onto sets of substantially parallel feasibility planes extending through a subsurface region to perform anti-collision and other types of hazard avoidance analysis. Hazards, e.g., existing well trajectories, that intersect the feasibility planes, as well as any uncertainties associated therewith, may be represented as infeasible regions in the feasibility planes, such that an analysis of the feasibility of a proposed well trajectory may be determined in a computationally efficient manner through a comparison of the locations, within one or more feasibility planes, of the proposed well trajectory and any infeasible regions defined in such feasibility planes.
Claims20
A method of analyzing hazards for at least one proposed well trajectory extending through a subsurface region, the method comprising:
- performing a comparison of the at least one proposed well trajectory against a plurality of feasibility planes extending substantially parallel to one another in the subsurface region, wherein each feasibility plane includes an infeasible region associated with any hazard in the subsurface region that intersects such feasibility plane;
- and
- determining feasibility of the at least one proposed well trajectory based upon the comparison.
An apparatus, comprising:
- at least one processing unit;
- and
- program code configured upon execution by the at least one processing unit to analyze hazards for at least one proposed well trajectory extending through a subsurface region by:
- performing a comparison of the at least one proposed well trajectory against a plurality of feasibility planes extending substantially parallel to one another in the subsurface region, wherein each feasibility plane includes an infeasible region associated with any hazard in the subsurface region that intersects such feasibility plane;
- and
- determining feasibility of the at least one proposed well trajectory based upon the comparison.
A program product, comprising:
- a computer readable medium;
- and
- program code stored on the computer readable medium and configured upon execution by at least one processing unit to analyze hazards for at least one proposed well trajectory extending through a subsurface region by:
- performing a comparison of the at least one proposed well trajectory against a plurality of feasibility planes extending substantially parallel to one another in the subsurface region, wherein each feasibility plane includes an infeasible region associated with any hazard in the subsurface region that intersects such feasibility plane;
- and
- determining feasibility of the at least one proposed well trajectory based upon the comparison.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.