A database for mapping off-road terrain of various characteristics in three-dimensional terms, comprising: a plurality of road segment entries, each containing data pertaining to the terrain characteristics of the segment; and a plurality of elbow entries, each containing (x, y, z) coordinates of the elbow and a record for each road segment having the elbow as one of its end points, the record comprising navigation directives for vehicles entering the segment from the elbow.

The invention discloses a method for simulating the discontinuity of the hydraulic fracture wall in fractured reservoirs, comprising the following steps: establish a physical model of the natural fracture; establish a hydraulic fracture propagation calculation equation; establish a natural fracture failure model, calculate the natural fracture aperture, and then calculate the natural fracture permeability, and finally convert the natural fracture permeability into the permeability of the porous medium; couple the hydraulic fracture propagation calculation equation with the permeability of the porous medium through the fracture propagation criterion and the fluid loss to obtain a pore elastic model of the coupled natural fracture considering the influence of the natural fracture; work out the stress and displacement distribution of the hydraulic fracture wall with the pore elastic model of the coupled natural fracture, and analyze the offset and discontinuity of the hydraulic fracture wall according to the displacement.

A method is described for estimating hydrocarbon reservoir attributes including obtaining a geophysical dataset and a geological dataset; obtaining a parameter model, the parameter model having been conditioned by training an initial parameter model using training data, wherein the geological data includes well data and the training data includes the well data; picking a surface in the geophysical dataset; assigning stratigraphic meaning to the at least one surface based on the geological dataset; identifying at least one region of interest on the at least one surface; generating statistical seismic attributes for the at least one region; identifying critical attributes among the statistical seismic attributes by applying the parameter model to generate response variable maps for the at least one region; and generating uncertainty maps for each of the critical attributes and for the response variables. The method may be executed by a computer system.

Embodiments provide a method for surveying a hydrocarbon reservoir utilizing a reservoir model. The method includes the step of establishing an ensemble of models reflecting attributes of the hydrocarbon reservoir based on the reservoir model in its present state. The method includes the step of updating the reservoir model by utilizing a volumetric density image of the hydrocarbon reservoir. The volumetric density image can be constructed via muon tomography.

Method for modelling a reservoir including receiving a data set relating to one or more wells within a reservoir, processing the data set to identify one or more fractures extending from the one or more wells into the reservoir, categorizing the one or more fractures as principal fractures or secondary fractures, identifying a near well high permeability region for each of the one or more wells, generating a gridded fracture plane of the one or more wells, determining a fracture permeability region, assembling the gridded fracture plane, the fracture permeability regions, and the near well high permeability region for each of the one or more wells, and generating a three-dimensional reservoir model based on the assembled gridded fracture plane for each of the plurality of predetermined depths, the fracture permeability regions, and the near well high permeability region for each of the one or more wells.

A system for drilling to a position relative to a geological boundary in a geological formation includes a sensor pack for sensing parameters associated with a drilling operation carried out in the geological formation by a drill. A data storage module stores a geological model of the geological formation and data relating to the sensed parameters, including data relating to the geological boundary. A processor module monitors the drilling operation using the sensed parameters data to locate the position of a drill bit of the drill in the geological formation and its corresponding position within the geological model. The processor module generates an end point at a defined position relative to the geological boundary. A drill controller communicates with the processor module, the drill controller controlling operation of the drill to cause the drill to cease drilling when the end point has been reached.

Subsurface exploration using In-Situ tests such as SPT, CPT, CPTu, DMT, and PMT predicts inaccurately engineering properties of soils and intermediate geomaterials and thereby predicts incorrect load-settlement relationship of piles; variations or errors in engineering properties predicted by one empirical correlation to another correlation could be up to 50% or greater. For soft to very soft soils, engineering properties cannot be predicted as the SPT only provides information such as WOR and WOH. To overcome this problem, the invention of the application consists of performing subsurface exploration using load tests on short model piles with or without instrumentation at various depths of a soil deposit for determining accurately the above-mentioned properties. For very soft soils, a hung balance is used to hang drill rods and short model pile from a drill rig boom or from a platform with soil anchors to prevent its overturning, and then perform the load test.

A method of optimizing well spacing for shale gas development is provided. It belongs to the technical field of hydrocarbon reservoir exploration and development. The method comprises: firstly verifying block area based on the explored geological structure; analyzing the connection situation of a shale reservoir, identifying the minimum developing area units; calculating the recoverable reserves of the units, confirming the candidate units; drilling representative shale cores and analyzing related physical properties; calculating seepage field and pressure field using unified multi-field, multi-flow-regime, and multi-scale mathematical models; calculating the effective recoverable area of each well; and arranging wells based on the rule that the interference among wells is not larger than 10%. Considering the fluid-solid coupling effects, the method can define appropriately well spacing for shale gas exploration and enhance effectively the output of shale gas.

Systems and methods of optimizing stimulation fluids in the form of a hydrocarbon foam, an emulsion based foam, an emulsion, and a gelled stimulation fluid, each comprising Y-Grade NGL, which is an unfractionated hydrocarbon mixture that comprises ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, and pentane plus, wherein the unfractionated hydrocarbon mixture is a byproduct of a condensed and demethanized hydrocarbon stream.

A method for building and using soil models that determine soil properties from soil spectrum data is provided. In an embodiment, building soil model may be accomplished using soil spectrum data received via hyperspectral sensors from a land unit. A processor updates the soil spectrum data by removing interference signals from the soil spectrum data. Multiple ground sampling locations within the land unit are then determined based on the updated soil spectrum data. Soil property data are obtained from ground sampling at the ground sampling locations. Soil models that correlate the updated soil spectrum data with the soil property data are created based on the updated soil spectrum data and the soil property data. The soil models are sent to a storage for future use.