Method for hydrocarbon recovery with a fractal pattern and related apparatus

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10006271-B2
Application number	US-201314037650-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 26, 2013
Priority date	Sep 26, 2013
Publication date	Jun 26, 2018
Grant date	Jun 26, 2018

Abstract

A method for predicting hydrocarbon recovery in a subterranean formation may include generating pre-heating data associated with fracturing in a sample from the subterranean formation, determining a first fractal pattern based upon the pre-heating data, and heating the sample with RF power to cause additional fracturing in the sample. The method may include generating post-heating data associated with additional fracturing in the sample after heating with RF power, determining a second fractal pattern based upon the post-heating data, detecting change between the first fractal pattern and the second fractal pattern, and predicting hydrocarbon recovery from the subterranean formation based upon the detected change.

First claim

That which is claimed is:

1. A method for predicting hydrocarbon recovery in a subterranean formation comprising:
generating pre-heating data associated with fracturing in a sample from the subterranean formation;
determining at least one first fractal pattern based upon the pre-heating data;
heating the sample with radio frequency (RF) power to cause additional fracturing in the sample;
generating post-heating data associated with additional fracturing in the sample after heating with RF power;
determining at least one second fractal pattern based upon the post-heating data;
performing mutual information calculations and joint entropy calculations between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern for detecting change between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the mutual information calculations being associated with similarity between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the joint entropy calculations being associated with dissimilarity between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the mutual information calculations and joint entropy calculations comprising generating a plurality of histograms, each histogram comprising a plurality of bins for fracture volumetric size and fracture vertical length; and
predicting hydrocarbon recovery from the subterranean formation based upon the detected change.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein detecting change comprises detecting a volumetric change in fracturing.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the pre-heating data comprises three-dimensional mapping pre-heating data; and wherein the post-heating data comprises three-dimensional mapping post-heating data.

4. The method of claim 3 wherein determining the at least one first fractal pattern is based upon at least one neighborhood of voxels in the three-dimensional mapping pre-heating data; and wherein determining the at least one second fractal pattern is based upon at least one neighborhood of voxels in the three-dimensional mapping post-heating data.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein generating the pre-heating data and post-heating data comprises using computed tomography (CT) scanning.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein each fractal pattern comprises an associated resolution and an associated fractal pattern type.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising generating a fractal pattern look-up table (LUT) including a plurality of values for the at least one first and the at least one second fractal patterns.

8. The method of claim 1 further comprising displaying at least one image based upon the at least one first and at least one second fractal patterns.

9. A method for predicting hydrocarbon recovery in a subterranean formation comprising:
generating pre-heating data associated with fracturing in a sample from the subterranean formation;
determining at least one first fractal pattern based upon the pre-heating data;
heating the sample with radio frequency (RF) power to cause additional fracturing in the sample;
generating post-heating data associated with additional fracturing in the sample after heating with RF power;
determining at least one second fractal pattern based upon the post-heating data;
performing mutual information calculations and joint entropy calculations between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern for detecting change between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the mutual information calculations being associated with similarity between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the joint entropy calculations being associated with dissimilarity between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the mutual information calculations and joint entropy calculations comprising generating a plurality of histograms, each histogram comprising a plurality of bins for fracture volumetric size and fracture vertical length;
predicting hydrocarbon recovery from the subterranean formation based upon the detected change;
applying RF power to the subterranean formation based upon the predicted hydrocarbon recovery; and
recovering hydrocarbons from the subterranean formation after applying RF power thereto.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein detecting change comprises detecting a volumetric change in fracturing.

11. The method of claim 9 wherein the pre-heating data comprises three-dimensional mapping pre-heating data; and wherein the post-heating data comprises three-dimensional mapping post-heating data.

12. The method of claim 11 wherein determining the at least one first fractal pattern is based upon at least one neighborhood of voxels in the three-dimensional mapping pre-heating data; and wherein determining the at least one second fractal pattern is based upon at least one neighborhood of voxels in the three-dimensional mapping post-heating data.

13. The method of claim 9 wherein generating the pre-heating data and post-heating data comprises using computed tomography (CT) scanning.

14. An apparatus for predicting hydrocarbon recovery in a subterranean formation from a sample thereof, the apparatus comprising:
a radio frequency (RF) antenna;
a sensor; and
a processor coupled to said RF antenna and said sensor and configured to
generate pre-heating data associated with fracturing in the sample from said sensor,
determine at least one first fractal pattern based upon the pre-heating data,
heat the sample with RF power from said RF antenna to cause additional fracturing in the sample,
generate post-heating data, via said sensor, associated with additional fracturing in the sample after heating with RF power,
determine at least one second fractal pattern based upon the post-heating data,
perform mutual information calculations and joint entropy calculations between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern to detect change between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the mutual information calculations being associated with similarity between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the joint entropy calculations being associated with dissimilarity between the at least one first fractal pattern and the at least one second fractal pattern, the mutual information calculations and joint entropy calculations comprising generating a plurality of histograms, each histogram comprising a plurality of bins for fracture volumetric size and fracture vertical length, and
predict hydrocarbon recovery from the subterranean formation based upon the detected change.

15. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein said processor is configured to detect change by at least detecting a volumetric change in fracturing.

16. The apparatus of claim 14 wherein the pre-heating data comprises three-dimensional mapping pre-heating data; and wherein the post-heating data comprises three-dimensional mapping post-heating data.

17. The apparatus of claim 16 wherein said processor is configured to determine the at least one first fractal pattern based upon at least one neighborhood of voxels in the three-dimensional mapping pre-heating data; and wherein said processor is configured to determine the at least one second fractal pattern based upon at least one neighborhood of voxels in the three-dimensional mappin

Assignees

• Harris Corp

Inventors

• Rahmes Mark
• Akbari Morteza
• Mcgonagle Mike
• Blue Mark

Classifications

• G01V9/005

  by thermal methods, e.g. after generation of heat by chemical reactions · CPC title

• E21B43/24 Primary

  using heat, e.g. steam injection · CPC title

• G01V3/12

  operating with electromagnetic waves {(operating with millimetre waves G01V8/005)} · CPC title

• E21B41/00 Primary

  Equipment or details not covered by groups E21B15/00 - E21B40/00 · CPC title

• G01V5/12 Primary

  using gamma or X-ray sources {(gamma sources using isotopes G21G4/00; X-ray tubes H01J35/00)} · CPC title