The US Office of Fossil Energy’s National Energy Technology Laboratory has just published its annual ‘Accomplishments Report’ for 2004 outlining some of the organization’s ‘advances’ in fossil energy related research and technology transfer. Several upstream software houses and Universities benefited from the US Government’s largesse.
Rock Solid Images
Houston-based Rock Solid Images has developed a ‘greatly improved’ method of predicting and quantifying oil and gas saturation distributions by ‘interpreting seismic attributes such as velocity and impedance in terms of inelastic rock properties.’ Two U.S. patent applications have been filed covering various aspects of the technology. The California Institute of Technology, Cornell University and GeoGroup have published a geochemical model to map source and migration pathways of hydrocarbons within a geologic basin. The model also tracks chemical changes that can occur during migration, such as phase separation and gas washing.
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin has improved the efficiency of seismic inversion algorithms for the estimation of petrophysical parameters, leveraging Bayesian Stochastic Inversion.
Maurer Engineering
Maurer Engineering’s electronic tally sheet program for Pocket PCs was upgraded and improved with NETL’s help. The New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources has released a new GIS-based digital oil-play portfolio of the Permian Basin of West Texas.
Advanced Resources
Advanced Resources International with help from Chevron has successfully used AI-based cluster analysis to interpret porosity and permeability trends in a low-cost decision making tool.
Argonne
An interactive Drilling Waste Management Information System has been developed for the DOE by Argonne Labs, Chevron and Marathon.
Guthrie
Finally, NETL reports that NETL manager Hugh Guthrie (85) was named ‘Outstanding Older Worker for the State of West Virginia’ by Experience Works, a provider of ‘older-worker training and employment’. Good on ya Hugh!
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