Electronic settlement of petroleum and gas distributions

• US 8,275,719 B1
• Filed: 01/19/2010
• Issued: 09/25/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 06/19/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Services Limited (Accenture PLC)
• Inventors: Agnew, Thomas J., Agnew, Frank D.
• Primary Examiner(s): Kyle, Charles
• Assistant Examiner(s): PERRY, LINDA C
• Application Number:
  US12/689,664
• Time in Patent Office: 980 Days
• Field of Search: 705/309
• US Class Current: 705/309
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/00 Finance; Insurance; Tax strategies; Processing of corporate or income taxes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/04 Trading; Exchange, e.g. stocks, commodities, derivatives or currency exchange

Abstract

In one embodiment, a system can include a centralized storage module, for example a database, that stores data relating to petroleum, natural gas and other related products taken from several different sources and entities. The entity storing and maintaining this data can be an entity independent from the operators, producers and/or other working interests. This system can use automated techniques to reconcile distributions to all entities associated with a well due to the removal of a mineral, for example, petroleum, natural gas and/or other related products, from that well, on a periodic basis. These automated techniques include, for example, reconciling all agreements associated with the well, reconciling the amount of mineral removed at the well, reconciling the spot market price associated with the well at the time of removal, automating approval by the removing entity, automating payment and the like.

Claims

1. A petroleum or gas distribution processing system comprising:

at least one non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with executable instructions; and

at least one processor that is configured to, upon execution of the executable instructions, perform operations comprising;

storing, in electronic storage, quantity data defining a quantity of petroleum or gas included in a petroleum or gas distribution associated with a well;

accessing, from sources including an independent source that is not involved in the petroleum or gas distribution, price data associated with the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution;

storing, in the electronic storage, the price data associated with the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution;

producing a list of rights and obligations of various parties associated with the well based on information from source documents that govern ownership of the well;

after producing the list of rights and obligations, determining, based on at least one rule, which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others;

after determining which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others, determining whether any of the rights and obligations included in the list are in conflict with each other;

based on a determination that at least one conflict exists in the rights and obligations included in the list;

generating an alert indicating the at least one conflict, and

automatically reconciling the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses one or more of a conflict resolution rule that agreements with later dates supersede agreements with earlier dates and a conflict resolution rule that reflects current legal precedent for the applicable jurisdiction;

storing, in the electronic storage, reconciled rights data that reflects the rights and obligations associated with the well after automatic reconciliation of the at least one conflict; and

generating a settlement for the petroleum or gas distribution using the quantity data, the price data, and the reconciled rights data.

2. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein accessing and storing the price data comprises:

receiving global price data associated with the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution;

receiving local cost data associated with the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution;

determining a correspondence between the global price data and a well from which the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution was extracted; and

determining a local price associated with the well from which the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution was extracted using the global price data, the local cost data, and the determined correspondence.

3. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 2, wherein:

receiving global price data comprises receiving price data from market centers;

determining the correspondence comprises determining a statistical pattern of flow of petroleum or gas extracted from the well to each of the market centers;

receiving the local cost data comprises receiving respective transportation costs from the well to each of the market centers; and

determining the local price associated with the well from which the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution was extracted using the global price data, the local cost data, and the determined correspondence comprises determining the local price using the price data from market centers, the statistical pattern of flow of petroleum or gas extracted from the well to each of the market centers, and the respective transportation costs from the well to each of the market centers.

4. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 2, wherein:

receiving global price data comprises receiving a published price from a New York mercantile exchange, an index price, and an actual sell price from an independent entity;

receiving the local cost data comprises receiving gathering costs, transportation costs, values of shrinkage, and prevailing transportation and gathering routes; and

determining the local price associated with the well from which the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution was extracted using the global price data, the local cost data, and the determined correspondence comprises determining the local price using the published price from the New York mercantile exchange, the index price, the actual sell price from the independent entity, the gathering costs, the transportation costs, the values of shrinkage, and the prevailing transportation and gathering routes.

5. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 2, wherein determining the local price associated with the well from which the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution was extracted using the global price data, the local cost data, and the determined correspondence comprises determining a monetary value using a technique comprising at least one of a fair market value technique, a gross proceeds technique, a highest price in an area technique, a most favored nation technique, a major portions technique, and a technique compliant to a government regulation or a contract term.

6. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 2, wherein receiving global price data comprises selecting monitoring points providing the global price data, each monitoring point providing a respective price per quantity of the petroleum or gas and at least one monitoring point corresponding to an independent entity that is not involved in the petroleum or gas distribution.

7. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 2, wherein selecting monitoring points providing the global price data comprises selecting monitoring points such that no single entity controls the global price data.

8. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 2, wherein determining the local price associated with the well from which the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution was extracted using the global price data, the local cost data, and the determined correspondence comprises generating an estimated probability density function associated with the local price.

11. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein producing a list of rights and obligations of various parties associated with the well based on information from source documents that govern ownership of the well comprises:

automatically reconciling the source documents that govern ownership of the well periodically using automated system business rules, identifiers, cross-references, and geospatial data, the automatic reconciliation including;

determining correct ownership of petroleum or gas extracted from the well,

determining rights and obligations of all parties involved in extraction, consumption, gathering, processing, storage, transportation, pricing, selling, invoicing, paying, and accounting for petroleum or gas extracted from the well, and

producing a list of all parties with a description of their ownership interest in petroleum or gas extracted from the well and their associated rights and obligations.

12. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein producing a list of rights and obligations of various parties associated with the well based on information from source documents that govern ownership of the well comprises:

accessing, from a database, geospatial data associated with the source documents that govern ownership of the well and a geospatial description of the well;

comparing the geospatial data associated with the source documents with the geospatial description of the well;

determining a total or partial intersection based on the comparison of the geospatial data associated with the source documents with the geospatial description of the well; and

based on the total or partial intersection, producing a list of rights and obligations of various parties associated with the well.

13. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 12:

wherein accessing, from the database, geospatial data associated with the source documents that govern ownership of the well and the geospatial description of the well comprises accessing geospatial data associated with the source documents represented as at least one polygon and accessing a geospatial description of the well represented as longitude and latitude coordinates; and

wherein determining the total or partial intersection based on the comparison of the geospatial data associated with the source documents with the geospatial description of the well comprises determining the total or partial intersection on both a two-dimensional and a three-dimensional basis to resolve both aerial and subsurface rights and obligations.

14. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein determining, based on at least one rule, which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others comprises determining which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others using rules and heuristics that are based on state, federal, and Indian government regulations, court rulings, prevailing case law, and most predominant industry practice in a given geographic area.

15. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein determining, based on at least one rule, which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others comprises determining that rights and obligations defined by typewritten or handwritten provisions control over rights and obligations defined by printed form provisions and determining precedence based on terms of any given agreement that indicate which rights and obligations supersede others.

16. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise prompting an administrator for further information to reconcile conflicting rights and obligations.

17. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein generating the alert indicating the at least one conflict comprises generating alerts to indicate absence of data, pending expiration of agreements, and inconsistencies across source documents and related information.

18. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein automatically reconciling the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses one or more of a conflict resolution rule that agreements with later dates supersede agreements with earlier dates and a conflict resolution rule that reflects current legal precedent for the applicable jurisdiction comprises automatically reconciling the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses a conflict resolution rule that agreements with later dates supersede agreements with earlier dates.

19. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein automatically reconciling the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses one or more of a conflict resolution rule that agreements with later dates supersede agreements with earlier dates and a conflict resolution rule that reflects current legal precedent for the applicable jurisdiction comprises automatically reconciling the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses a conflict resolution rule that reflects current legal precedent for the applicable jurisdiction.

20. The petroleum or gas distribution processing system of claim 1, wherein automatically reconciling the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses one or more of a conflict resolution rule that agreements with later dates supersede agreements with earlier dates and a conflict resolution rule that reflects current legal precedent for the applicable jurisdiction comprises automatically reconciling the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses a conflict resolution rule that agreements with later dates supersede agreements with earlier dates and a conflict resolution rule that reflects current legal precedent for the applicable jurisdiction.

9. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium encoded with a computer program product, the computer program product comprising instructions that, when executed, operate to cause a computer to perform operations comprising:

storing, in electronic storage, quantity data defining a quantity of petroleum or gas included in a petroleum or gas distribution associated with a well;

accessing, from sources including an independent source that is not involved in the petroleum or gas distribution, price data associated with the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution;

storing, in the electronic storage, the price data associated with the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution;

producing a list of rights and obligations of various parties associated with the well based on information from source documents that govern ownership of the well;

after producing the list of rights and obligations, determining, based on at least one rule, which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others;

after determining which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others, determining whether any of the rights and obligations included in the list are in conflict with each other;

based on a determination that at least one conflict exists in the rights and obligations included in the list;

generating an alert indicating the at least one conflict, and

automatically reconciling the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses one or more of a conflict resolution rule that agreements with later dates supersede agreements with earlier dates and a conflict resolution rule that reflects current legal precedent for the applicable jurisdiction;

storing, in the electronic storage, reconciled rights data that reflects the rights and obligations associated with the well after automatic reconciliation of the at least one conflict; and

generating a settlement for the petroleum or gas distribution using the quantity data, the price data, and the reconciled rights data.

10. A method comprising:

storing, in electronic storage, quantity data defining a quantity of petroleum or gas included in a petroleum or gas distribution associated with a well;

accessing, from sources including an independent source that is not involved in the petroleum or gas distribution, price data associated with the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution;

storing, in the electronic storage, the price data associated with the petroleum or gas included in the petroleum or gas distribution;

producing a list of rights and obligations of various parties associated with the well based on information from source documents that govern ownership of the well;

after producing the list of rights and obligations, determining, based on at least one rule, which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others;

after determining which of the rights and obligations included in the list take precedence over others, determining whether any of the rights and obligations included in the list are in conflict with each other;

based on a determination that at least one conflict exists in the rights and obligations included in the list;

generating an alert indicating the at least one conflict, and

automatically reconciling, by at least one processor, the at least one conflict based on a heuristic process that uses one or more of a conflict resolution rule that agreements with later dates supersede agreements with earlier dates and a conflict resolution rule that reflects current legal precedent for the applicable jurisdiction;

storing, in the electronic storage, reconciled rights data that reflects the rights and obligations associated with the well after automatic reconciliation of the at least one conflict; and

generating, by at least one processor, a settlement for the petroleum or gas distribution using the quantity data, the price data, and the reconciled rights data.