Modeling potentially hazardous sites and informing on actual hazardous conditions

• US 10,254,439 B2
• Filed: 07/25/2014
• Issued: 04/09/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: WellAware Holdings, Inc.
• Original Assignee: WellAware Holdings, Inc.
• Inventors: Lee, Cody James
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah, Kamini S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Khan, Iftekhar A
• Application Number:
  US14/340,756
• Publication Number:
  US 20150032434A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,719 Days
• Field of Search: 703 10
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 11/00 Prospecting or detecting by methods combining techniques covered by two or more of main groups G01V1/00 - G01V9/00

Abstract

Implementations are directed to monitoring and reporting on actual hazardous conditions at a facility receiving data associated with a site, the site being susceptible to potentially hazardous conditions, and include actions of determining that a hazardous condition is present at the site, processing the data based on one or more models to provide output data, processing the output data to provide indicator data for providing a graphical representation of the site, the graphical representation providing a graphical depiction of the hazardous condition, and providing the indicator data to one or more user devices, the indicator data being processed by each of the one or more user devices to display the graphical representation.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for monitoring and reporting on actual hazardous conditions at a facility, the method being executed using one or more processors and comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of gas sensors of a well-site sensor network installed at a well-site geographically remote from the one or more processors, sensor data associated with the well-site, the well-site being susceptible to potentially hazardous conditions;

determining, by the one or more processors and based on the sensor data, that a hazardous condition is present at the well-site;

in response to determining that the hazardous condition is present at the well-site, processing, by the one or more processors, the sensor data based on one or more models to provide output data, the output data including an array of gas concentrations each associated with a particular type of gas, a particular location and a particular time;

receiving, by the one or more processors and from a user device, a set of gas types and a set of gas concentration ranges, each gas concentration range being associated with a respective gas type in the set of gas types;

processing, by the one or more processors, the output data to provide indicator data for providing a graphical representation of the site, the graphical representation providing a graphical depiction of a part of the hazardous condition caused by one or more gas types in the output data that are filtered based on gas types in the set of gas types and respective concentration ranges in the set of gas concentration ranges; and

providing the indicator data to one or more user devices, the indicator data being processed by each of the one or more user devices to display the graphical representation.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more models comprise at least one of a site model, a fluid-flow model, and a weather model.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the site model models a size and location of equipment present at the well-site.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the site model models topographical features of the well-site.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the fluid-flow model models flow of one or more fluids at the well-site.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving weather data from one or more weather sources, wherein the weather data is processed with the sensor data based on the one or more models to provide the output data.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein a weather source comprises a weather station located at the well-site.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical representation comprises an indicator of the hazardous condition at the well-site.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein the indicator comprises location and severity of the hazardous condition with respect to the well-site.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the well-site comprises at least one of a production well-site, an exploration well-site, a configuration well-site, an injection well-site, an observation well-site, and a drilling well-site.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the well-site comprises at least a portion of an above-ground appurtenance.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein processing the output data to provide indicator data comprises determining, based on an actual gas concentration value at a particular location and the one or more models, one or more estimated values reflective of the gas concentration at locations other than the particular location.

15. The method of claim 1, wherein the output data has a structural format of [G, L, C, t], wherein G is the particular gas type, and L is the particular location, C is the gas concentration, and t is the particular time associated with G.

16. The method of claim 1, wherein the gas sensors are configured to sense at least one of hydrogen sulfide (H2S), methane (CH4), carbon monoxide (CO), and carbon dioxide (CO2), and

wherein processing the sensor data further comprises determining, based on the sensor data, the particular gas type as at least one of H2S, CH4, CO, and CO2.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein the output data further comprises one or more properties of the particular type of gas, the one or more properties comprise at least one of molecular weight and critical point of the particular gas type.

18. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical representation is configured to provide a first graphical indicator depicting a first range of gas concentration and a second graphical indicator depicting a second range of gas concentration different from the first range of gas concentration, the second graphical indicator being different from the first graphical indicator.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical representation is displayed on a graphical user interface that comprises one or more sliders representing one or more gas concentration ranges associated with respective gas types.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium coupled to one or more processors and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations for monitoring and reporting on actual hazardous conditions at a facility, the operations comprising:

receiving, from a plurality of gas sensors of a well-site sensor network installed at a well-site geographically remote from the one or more processors, sensor data associated with the well-site, the well-site being susceptible to potentially hazardous conditions;

determining, based on the sensor data, that a hazardous condition is present at the well-site;

in response to determining that the hazardous condition is present at the well-site, processing the sensor data based on one or more models to provide output data, the output data including an array of gas concentrations each associated with a particular type of gas, a particular location and a particular time;

processing the output data to provide indicator data for providing a graphical representation of the site, the graphical representation providing a graphical depiction of the hazardous condition filtered based on one or more gas types in the output data that are within respective predetermined gas concentration ranges; and

providing the indicator data to one or more user devices, the indicator data being processed by each of the one or more user devices to display the graphical representation.

13. A system, comprising:

a sensor network installed at a well-site, the sensor network comprising a plurality of gas sensors; and

a backend network comprising one or more computing devices in electronic communication with the sensor network and a computer-readable storage device coupled to the one or more computing devices and having instructions stored thereon which, when executed by the one or more computing devices, cause the one or more computing devices to perform operations for monitoring and reporting on actual hazardous conditions at a facility, the operations comprising;

receiving, from the gas sensors, sensor data associated with the well-site, the well-site being susceptible to potentially hazardous conditions;

determining, based on the sensor data, that a hazardous condition is present at the well-site;

in response to determining that the hazardous condition is present at the well-site, processing the sensor data based on one or more models to provide output data, the output data including an array of gas concentrations each associated with a particular type of gas, a particular location and a particular time;

receiving, by the one or more processors and from a user device, a set of gas types and a set of gas concentration ranges, each gas concentration range being associated with a respective gas type in the set of gas types;

processing, by the one or more processors, the output data to provide indicator data for providing a graphical representation of the site, the graphical representation providing a graphical depiction of a part of the hazardous condition caused by one or more gas types in the output data that are filtered based on gas types in the set of gas types and respective concentration ranges in the set of gas concentration ranges associated with the gas types; and

providing the indicator data to one or more user devices, the indicator data being processed by each of the one or more user devices to display the graphical representation.

20. The method of 19, wherein the one or more gas concentration ranges are received in response to receiving user inputs on the one or more sliders.