Method and system for oil and gas production information and management

• US 20020035551A1
• Filed: 12/15/2000
• Published: 03/21/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 09/20/2000
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: American Central Gas Technologies Incorporated
• Original Assignee: American Central Gas Technologies Incorporated
• Inventors: Sherwin, Rodney D., Dickerson, Ricky J., Mcdaniel, Raydon
• Application Number:
  US09/738,230
• Publication Number:
  US 20020035551A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/412
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/82 Energy audits or management systems therefor

Abstract

A system and method of managing and/or operating an oil and/or gas field including the steps of acquiring and processing information concerning oil and/or gas producing wells and/or oil field production transportation facilities and/or oil field production treatment facilities by providing signal generators each connected to respond to an item of oil and/or gas field equipment from which information is desired, transmitting signals from the signal generators to a data acquisition center, at the data acquisition center, deriving data from the signal generators and creating useful information, transmitting the useful information to operators and/or controllers in the oil and/or gas field for the control or operation thereof at the data acquisition center, creating information as to the status of the oil and/or gas field, and transmitting the information as to the status of the oil and/or gas field to authorized destinations requiring the information.

Claims

1. A system for acquiring and processing information from a plurality of oil and/or gas producing wells and/or oil field production transportation facilities and/or oil field production treatment facilities, comprising:

a plurality of signal generators, each signal generator being associated with an item of equipment from which information is desired;

an area communication system connected to receive signals generated by said signal generators and for transmitting signals to at least one remote location;

a remote data acquisition center and server connected to said area communication system for receiving signals generated by said signal generators and for creating derived information; and

a regional data source manager system connected to receive said derived information from said remote data acquisition center and for distributing said derived information to customer applications and/or data links.

2. A system according to claim 1 wherein said derived information is distributed by said regional data source manager by means of the Internet.

3. A system according to claim 1 wherein said signal generators function to generate signals from at least one of the following:

a compression station, a dehydration site, a liquid handling facility, a wellhead, a chromatograph and a flow enhancement facility.

4. A system according to claim 1 wherein said generators are selected from electronic flow measurement devices, programable logic controllers, remote transmitting units and distribution control systems.

5. A system according to claim 1 wherein said regional data source manager includes at least one sub-system selected from:

(a) a lab chromatograph server;

(b) an electronic flow meter evaluation/editor server;

(c) a remote data acquisition server;

(d) a regional data source manager server; and

(e) a plant distributive central system server.

6. A system according to claim 1 including a national service center connected to receive distribution from said regional data source manager.

7. A system according to claim 6 wherein said national service center includes one or more sub-systems selected from:

(a) a national data source manager server;

(b) an Internet access server;

(c) a corporate data warehouse server; and

(d) a national control manager.

8. A system according to claim 6 wherein said national service center provides customized menu-based reports for clients selected from one or more menu buttons comprising:

(a) summary;

(b) spot;

(c) volumn;

(d) revenue;

(e) contract;

(f) pricing;

(g) settlement; and

(h) contracts.

9. A system according to claim 6 wherein said national service center provides periodic summaries wherein each summary contains one or more of:

(a) a well or central delivery point identification number;

(b) a well or central delivery point name;

(c) the total month-to-date flow of a selected well or delivery point;

(d) a selectable BTU factor report;

(e) a royalty interest ownership report;

(f) a royalty interest month-to-date flow report;

(g) a month-to-date gross revenue report; and

(h) a graphical display of any or all of each such summary.

10. A method of managing and/or operating an oil and/or gas field or fields comprising the steps of:

(a) acquiring and processing information concerning a plurality of oil and/or gas producing wells and/or a plurality of oil field production transportation facilities and/or a plurality of oil field production treatment facilities by providing a plurality of signal generators each connected to respond to an item of oil and/or gas field equipment from which information is desired;

(b) transmitting signals from at least some of said signal generators to a remote data acquisition center;

(c) at said data acquisition center, deriving data from said signal generators and creating useful information;

(d) transmitting said useful information to operators and/or controllers in said oil and/or gas field or fields for the control or operation thereof;

(e) at said data acquisition center, creating information as to the status of said oil and/or gas field or fields; and

(f) transmitting said information as to the status of said oil and/or gas field or fields to authorized destinations requiring and/or desiring said information.

11. The method of claim 10 wherein step (f) is transmitted by use of the Internet.