Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
DETAILED ACTION
Status
This instant application No. 17/804,043 has Claims 1-20 pending.
Priority / Filing Date
Applicant did not claim for any domestic or foreign priority. The effective filing date of this application is May 25, 2022.
Information Disclosure Statement
As required by M.P.E.P. 609(C), the Applicant’s submissions of the Information Disclosure Statements dated May 26, 2022 and April 18, 2025 are acknowledged by the Examiner and the cited references have been considered in the examination of the claims now pending. As required by M.P.E.P. 609 C(2), a copy of each of the PTOL-1449s initialed and dated by the Examiner is attached to the instant Office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
4. Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Berge et al. hereafter Berge (Pub. No.: US 2008/0319726 A1), in view of Gurpinar et al. hereafter Gurpinar (Pub. No.: US 2005/0149307 A1), further in view of Zagayevskiy et al. hereafter Zagayevskiy (Pub. No.: US 2021/0149077 A1).
Regarding Claim 1, Berge disclose an automated method for dynamically modelling a petroleum reservoir (Berge: abstract), the method comprising:
running, by a processing circuit, an (Berge: [0044], [0107]),
wherein the (Berge: [0044], [0057], [0059]);
wherein the petroleum reservoir has a plurality of petroleum wells represented in the integrated reservoir model (Berge: Figures 4, 6, [0064], [0066], [0085]),
wherein the (Berge: [0044], [0107]),
wherein the (Berge: Figure 6, [0087], [0091]), and
wherein the (Berge: Figure 8-802, Figure 9, [0096], [0098]- [0102], [0108], [0109]);
and
running, by the processing circuit, the (Berge: Figure 7, Figure 8-802, Figure 9, [0087], [0091], [0092], [0096], [0098]- [0102], [0108], [0109]);
Berge do not explicitly disclose:
integrated reservoir database. And
integrated reservoir model; and
obtaining, by the processing circuit, new measurement data from a new petroleum well of the petroleum reservoir and that is not part of the plurality of petroleum wells;
storing, by the processing circuit, the obtained new measurement data in the integrated database;
Gurpinar disclose:
integrated reservoir database (Gurpinar: Figure 8, [0028], [0079], [0144]-[0146]);
integrated reservoir model (Gurpinar: Figure 7, [0021], [0080], [0131]-[0134]);
obtaining, by the processing circuit, new measurement data from a new petroleum well of the petroleum reservoir and that is not part of the plurality of petroleum wells (Guripnar: [0021], [0072], [0075], [0079]);
storing, by the processing circuit, the obtained new measurement data in the integrated database (Guripnar: Figure 8-41c4, [0144]-[0146]);
Berge and Gurpinar are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor. They both relate to reservoir modeling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the above static and dynamic modeling application, as taught by Berge, and incorporating the use of integrated reservoir modeling technology, as taught by Gurpinar.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this modification in order to develop updated reservoir development plan that optimizes an overall performance of the reservoir, as suggested by Gurpinar (Gurpinar: abstract).
Berge/and or Gurpinar do not explicitly disclose:
updating, by the processing circuit, the set of calibrated parameters to reflect the stored new measurement data within a predefined distance of the new petroleum well while not updating the set of calibrated parameters outside the predefined distance of the new petroleum well.
Zagayevskiy disclose:
updating, by the processing circuit, the set of calibrated parameters to reflect the stored new measurement data within a predefined distance of the new petroleum well while not updating the set of calibrated parameters outside the predefined distance of the new petroleum well (Zagayevskiy: Figure 4, [0040], [0041]: Examiner’ Remark(ER): Note Updating the ensemble using exclusively the identified parameters taking into account weighting functions; Also note the grid block retaining function φ is assigned the value of 1 for all points within some predefined distance from the well and is assigned the value of 0, as long as their distance is above the predefined distance from the well- All these phenomenon are analogous to the claimed updating parameters based upon a predefined distance of the new of the new petroleum well);
Berge, Gurpinar and Zagayevskiy are analogous art because they are from the same field of endeavor. All of them relate to reservoir modeling.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the above integrated static and dynamic modeling application, as taught by the combinations of Berge and Gurpinar, and incorporating selectively incorporating new flow simulation results and production data., as taught by Zagayevskiy.
One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do this modification in order to predicting future reservoir behavior, as suggested by Zagayevskiy (Zagayevskiy: abstract).
Regarding Claims 8 and 15, the claims recite the same substantive limitations as Claim 1 and are rejected using the same teachings.
Regarding Claim 2, the combinations of Berge, Gurpinar and Zagayevskiy further disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the different reservoir disciplines comprise three or more of geology, geophysics, petrophysics, reservoir engineering, and fluid dynamics (Berge: Figure 10b, [0106]).
Regarding Claims 9 and 16, the claims recite the same substantive limitations as Claim 2 and are rejected using the same teachings.
Regarding Claim 3, the combinations of Berge, Gurpinar and Zagayevskiy further disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the measurement data for each petroleum well of the petroleum reservoir comprises a well top, a deviation survey, a porosity log, a permeability log, and an initial water saturation (Berge: [0059], [0062], [0091], [0097], [0122]).
Regarding Claims 10 and 17, the claims recite the same substantive limitations as Claim 3 and are rejected using the same teachings.
Regarding Claim 4, the combinations of Berge, Gurpinar and Zagayevskiy further disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the static model incorporates structural, stratigraphical, and petrophysical features of the petroleum reservoir (Berge: Figure 10b, [0106]).
Regarding Claim 11, the claim recites the same substantive limitations as Claim 4 and is rejected using the same teachings.
Regarding Claim 5, the combinations of Berge, Gurpinar and Zagayevskiy further disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the static model comprises spatial position information of different formations, faults, folds, and the plurality of petroleum wells in the petroleum reservoir (Berge: Figure 4, Figure 5, [0022], [0063], [0065], [0081]).
Regarding Claims 12 and 18, the claims recite the same substantive limitations as Claim 5 and are rejected using the same teachings.
Regarding Claim 6, the combinations of Berge, Gurpinar and Zagayevskiy further disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the measurement data comprises pressure-volume temperature (PVT) data, special core analysis (SCAL) data, oil production data, pressure data, and vertical lift performance (VLP) data (Berge: [0053], [0055], [0062], [0067]).
Regarding Claims 13 and 19, the claims recite the same substantive limitations as Claim 6 and are rejected using the same teachings.
Regarding Claim 7, the combinations of Berge, Gurpinar and Zagayevskiy further disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising running the integrated reservoir model with the updated set of calibrated parameters in order to identify areas of unswept oil (Gurpinar: Figure 6, [0125]).
Regarding Claims 14 and 20, the claims recite the same substantive limitations as Claim 7 and are rejected using the same teachings.
Conclusion
5. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Pomerantz et al. (Patent No.: US 10,534,871 B2) teaches fluid property modeling that employs a model that characterizes asphaltene concentration gradients is integrated into a reservoir modeling and simulation framework to allow for reservoir compartmentalization to be assessed more quickly and easily.
Stern et al. (Patent No. US 9703006 B2) teaches a method for matching production history to flow simulations includes identifying a plurality of parameters that control an objective function measuring the mismatch between a flow simulation response in a parameter subspace and a production history.
Noufal et al. (Pub. No.: US 20220291418 A1) conceptually relates to a method of prediction of hydrocarbon accumulation in a geological region. Such a prediction can be used to improve oil and gas production by predicting the location of hydrocarbon accumulations and the migration trajectories, and accordingly provides a useful tool for exploration and Field Development Plan (FDP).
Derfoul et al. (Pub. No.: US 20120109597 A1) defines a method of developing a petroleum reservoir from a reservoir model constrained by the production data and seismic attributes.
6. Examiner’s Remarks: Examiner has cited particular columns and line numbers in the references applied to the claims above for the convenience of the applicant. Although the specified citations are representative of the teachings of the art and are applied to specific limitations within the individual claim, other passages and figures may apply as well. It is respectfully requested from the applicant in preparing responses, to fully consider the references in their entirety as potentially teaching all or part of the claimed invention, as well as the context of the passage as taught by the prior art or disclosed by the Examiner. In the case of amending the claimed invention, Applicant is respectfully requested to indicate the portion(s) of the specification which dictate(s) the structure relied on for proper interpretation and also to verify and ascertain the metes and bounds of the claimed invention.
Correspondence Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to IFTEKHAR A KHAN whose telephone number is (571)272-5699. The examiner can normally be reached on M-F from 9:00AM-6:00PM (CST). If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Emerson Puente can be reached on (571)272-3652. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from Patent Center and the Private Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from Patent Center or Private PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Patent Center and Private PAIR to authorized users only. Should you have questions about access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free).
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) Form at https://www.uspto.gov/patents/uspto-automated- interview-request-air-form.
/IFTEKHAR A KHAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2187