DETAILED ACTION
The Preliminary amendment filed 4/4/2025 has been entered. Claims 1-20 have been amended and are pending.
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter. The claims are directed to an abstract idea without significantly more.
Here, under step 1 of the Alice analysis, method claims 1-11 are directed to a series of steps, system claims 12-16 are directed to computing system comprising a processor, and system claims 17-20 are directed to a first site device; a second site device; and a processor. Thus the claims are directed to a process, machine, and machine, respectively.
Under step 2A Prong One of the analysis, the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claims recite managing a well (hydrocarbon) site, including acquiring, determining, generating and operating steps.
The limitations of acquiring, determining, generating and operating, are a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers organizing human activity concepts, but for the recitation of generic computer components.
Specifically, the claim elements recite acquiring sensor data associated with operation of the well site; determining, based on the sensor data, emission data corresponding to emissions associated with the well site and resource usage data corresponding to resource usage associated with the well site, wherein the resource usage data corresponds to resource usage of at least two of electricity, fuel gas, liquid fuel, and chemicals associated with the well site; generating display data corresponding to the emission data and the resource usage data; and providing the display data to a user.
That is, other than reciting at least one sensing unit, a display device, and a processor (in system claims 12-20), the claim limitations merely cover commercial interactions, including business relations, thus falling within the “Certain Methods of Organizing Human Activity” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claims recite an abstract idea.
Under Step 2A Prong Two, the eligibility analysis evaluates whether the claim as a whole integrates the recited judicial exception into a practical application of the exception. This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. The claims include at least one sensing unit, a display device, and a processor. The at least one sensing unit, display device, and processor in the steps is recited at a high-level of generality, such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. As a result, the claims are directed to an abstract idea.
The claims do not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of at least one sensing unit, a display device, and a processor amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
None of the dependent claims recite additional limitations that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the abstract idea. Claims 2-5 recite additional receiving, determining, operating, obtaining, minimizing, determining, and generating steps. Claims 6 and 7 further describe the well site and recites additional receiving, determining, and operating steps. Claims 8 and 9 further describe the display device. Claims 10 and 11 recite additional forecasting, determining, and operating steps, and further describes the resource usage. Similarly, dependent claims 13-16 and 18-20 recite additional details that further restrict/define the abstract idea. A more detailed abstract idea remains an abstract idea.
Under step 2B of the analysis, the claims include, inter alia, at least one sensing unit, a display device, and a processor.
As discussed with respect to Step 2A Prong Two, the additional elements in the claim amount to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic computer component. The same analysis applies here in 2B, i.e., mere instructions to apply an exception on a generic computer cannot integrate a judicial exception into a practical application at Step 2A or provide an inventive concept in Step 2B.
There isn’t any improvement to another technology or technical field, or the functioning of the computer itself. Moreover, individually, there are not any meaningful limitations beyond generally linking the abstract idea to a particular technological environment, i.e., implementation via a computer system. Further, taken as a combination, the limitations add nothing more than what is present when the limitations are considered individually. There is no indication that the combination provides any effect regarding the functioning of the computer or any improvement to another technology.
In addition, as discussed in paragraph 0099 of the specification, “The controller 1102 includes processing circuitry 1104 including a processor 1106 and a memory 1108. The processor 1106 can be a general purpose or specific purpose processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), one or more field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), a group of processing components, or other suitable processing components. The processor 1106 may be configured to execute computer code and/or instructions stored in the memory 1108 or received from other computer readable media (e.g., CDROM, network storage, a remote server, etc.).”
As such, this disclosure supports the finding that no more than a general purpose computer, performing generic computer functions, is required by the claims.
Viewed as a whole, these additional claim element(s) do not provide meaningful limitation(s) to transform the abstract idea into a patent eligible application of the abstract idea such that the claim(s) amounts to significantly more than the abstract idea itself. Therefore, the claim(s) are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 as being directed to non-statutory subject matter. See Alice Corporation Pty. Ltd. v. CLS Bank Int’l et al., No. 13-298 (U.S. June 19, 2014).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Menon et al (US 20240403895 A1).
As per claim 1, Menon et al disclose a method for managing a well site (i.e., FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an example hydrocarbon production system 10 where hydrocarbon products, such as crude oil and natural gas, may be extracted from the ground, stored, transported, processed, distributed, and the like, ¶ 0038), the method comprising:
acquiring, from at least one sensing unit associated with the well site, sensor data associated with operation of the well site (i.e., image acquisition sources 102 may include devices that may acquire image data (e.g., pictures, video, infrared image) using any suitable image sensor. As such, the devices may include satellites, drones, infrared sensors, cameras, and the like. The image data provided by the image acquisition sources 102 may correspond to heat dissipating from a device, gas leaking from a device, emissions (e.g., fumes, height of fumes) produced by a device, ¶ 0060);
determining, based on the sensor data, emission data corresponding to emissions associated with the well site and resource usage data corresponding to resource usage associated with the well site (i.e., the enterprise production data may also include the real-time monitoring of emissions from rig activities, such as power consumption by controllers (e.g., PLCs) and fuel consumption based on data from flow meters. In some embodiments, GHG sensors may be positioned at various locations, ¶ 0107), wherein the resource usage data corresponds to resource usage of at least two of electricity, fuel gas, liquid fuel, and chemicals associated with the well site (i.e., That is, in oil and gas operations, hydraulic fracturing operations may involve deploying trucks and other equipment at a site to perform the fracturing operations. The fuel consumed in association with performing these fracturing operations may contribute to a large part of the GHG emissions associated with the total project, ¶ 0106. The submersible pump 34 may include electro-submersible pumps (ESPs) that may be submerged in a wellbore and may user an electric motor to drive impellers to lift fluid to the surface. As such, ESPs may be an energy-intensive tool that may have a significant impact in sustainability factors. With this in mind, the environmental impact, particularly in terms of emissions, may largely depend on the source of power or energy provided to the ESP and its sustainability properties (e.g., cleanliness), ¶ 0042);
generating display data corresponding to the emission data and the resource usage data; and operating a display device to provide the display data to a user (i.e., the sustainability platform system 72 may include a number of components to assist in processing, analyzing, collecting, and communicating data in accordance with the presently disclosed embodiments. With this in mind, FIG. 3 illustrates example components of the sustainability platform system 72. As shown in FIG. 3, the sustainability platform system 72 may include a communication component 152, a processor 154, a memory 156, a storage component 158, input/output (I/O) ports 60, a display 162, ¶ 0090).
As per claim 2, Menon et al disclose receiving, from the display device, a user input indicating a control objective of the well site; determining, based on the sensor data, the emission data, and the resource usage data, a control decision for a controllable element of the well site that achieves the control objective and operating the display device to provide the control decision to the user (i.e., the sustainability platform system 72 may operational optimization schedules or parameters for variable speed drives (VSDs) that control the operations of the ESP to reduce the energy consumption of an ESP and move towards net-zero emissions. Indeed, by utilizing VSD to dynamically adjust pump operations based on detected conditions (e.g., pressure, flow, sustainability parameters, the ESPs may operate at certain capacities that significantly reduce energy use. Moreover, incorporating VSDs permits precise control over pump speed and torque, optimizing efficiency across varying conditions. Further, the controlled VSDs may decrease electricity demand but also extend equipment lifespan and reduce the environmental impact of oil and gas extraction operations, ¶ 0105).
As per claim 3, Menon et al disclose operating the controllable element according to the control decision to achieve the control objective (i.e., control the operations of the ESP to reduce the energy consumption of an ESP and move towards net-zero emissions, ¶ 0105).
As per claim 4, Menon et al disclose obtaining an objective function that defines emission costs corresponding to the emissions associated with the well site and resource usage costs corresponding to the resource usage associated with the well site as a function of control decisions for controllable elements of the well site (i.e., the sustainability target data may include energy, emissions, water, and waste objectives. However, a user may select to optimize for the emissions portion of the sustainability target data. The emissions may be the sustainability variable data received, ¶ 0138); and minimizing the objective function to determine the control decision that results in a minimum sum of the emission costs and the resource usage costs (i.e., selection of which sustainability variable to optimize could be executed in a number of ways in addition to manual selection by the user, as described above. Briefly, manual selection would enable the user to specify which parameter to optimize, such as minimum cost, maximum emission reduction (reduction in greenhouse gas volume), or maximum commodity production, ¶ 0184).
As per claim 5, Menon et al disclose determining, based on the sensor data, emission intensity data corresponding to an emission intensity associated with the well site and resource usage intensity data corresponding to a resource usage intensity associated with the well site; generating intensity display data corresponding to the emission intensity data and the resource usage intensity data; and operating the display device to provide the intensity display data to the user (i.e., the GHG report may include a baseline year for tracking the GHG emissions and a year-by-year (e.g., or other suitable time period) analysis that presents GHG emissions data for each year since the baseline, showing absolute emissions and intensity metrics (e.g., emissions per unit of production or revenue). The GHG report may include an emissions breakdown portion that indicates the emissions data according to source, ¶ 0227).
As per claim 6, Menon et al disclose the well site includes an artificial lift system; the emission data includes a portion associated with operation of the artificial lift system; and the resource usage data includes a portion associated with operation of the artificial lift system, the portion of the resource usage data indicating a quantity of chemicals being injected by the artificial lift system into a flow of hydrocarbons (i.e., emissions could be calculated from the quantity of diesel fuel consumed over a specific time period, from the run time of pumps used in artificial lift operations, from pressure readings over a pipeline network, and the like. After emissions have been calculated, if the value exceeds a set threshold, the sustainability platform system 72 may trigger the re-optimization process, ¶ 0163).
As per claim 7, Menon et al disclose receiving, from the display device, a user input indicating a control objective of the well site; determining, based on the sensor data, the portion of the emission data, and the portion of the resource usage data associated with operation of the artificial lift system, a control decision for a controllable element associated with the artificial lift system that achieves the control objective; and operating the display device to provide the control decision to the user (i.e., the sustainability platform system 72 may send commands to equipment (e.g., lights, pumps, wellheads, artificial lifts), such as via IoT devices 44, to adjust operations based on the recommended action plan 90 to improve the sustainability parameters associated with the enterprise, ¶ 0059).
As per claim 8, Menon et al disclose the display device is operated to provide a live dashboard associated with the display data, the live dashboard indicating live emissions associated with the well site and live resource usage associated with the well site (i.e., the sustainability platform system 72 may receive greenhouse gas (GHG) emission data for the enterprise operations. The GHG emission data may be provided by or determined based on real time data acquired by real-time sources 108, ¶ 0103).
As per claim 9, Menon et al disclose the display data includes a first portion of the emission data and the resource usage data associated with a first well device of the well site and a second portion of the emission data er and the resource usage data associated with a second well device of the well site (i.e., the upstream system 12 may include a number of components or facilities that correspond to wells, processing facilities, collection components, distribution networks, and the like. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the upstream system 12 may include a number of wells 22 disposed within a geological formation 24, ¶ 0040).
As per claim 10, Menon et al disclose forecasting, based on the emission data and the resource usage data, the emissions associated with the well site and the resource usage associated with the well site over a future time period; determining, based on the forecasted emissions and forecasted resource usage, a control decision for a controllable element of the well site; and operating the controllable element according to the control decision such that a sum of an emission cost associated with the forecasted emissions and a resource usage cost associated with the forecasted resource usage does not exceed a cost threshold (i.e., The drilling activity workflow may include planning of rig activities for proposing a drilling plan accounting for the well profile, well activities, emission forecasts, and the like. As such, the enterprise production data may also include the real-time monitoring of emissions from rig activities, such as power consumption by controllers (e.g., PLCs) and fuel consumption based on data from flow meters, ¶ 0107, wherein an economic analysis may be initiated before the action plans 90 are determined to consider forecasted business activities, technology costs, and other prioritized areas, ¶ 0117, wherein the sustainability platform system 72 may forecast or predict expected sustainability parameters over time for the enterprise. The expected sustainability parameters may include the sustainability optimization parameters, ¶ 0193).
As per claim 11, Menon et al disclose the resource usage data corresponds to resource usage of electricity, fuel gas, liquid fuel, and chemicals associate with the well site (i.e., The fuel consumed in association with performing these fracturing operations may contribute to a large part of the GHG emissions associated with the total project, ¶ 0106. The surface equipment 30 may include equipment that store cement slurries, drilling fluids, displacement fluids, spacer fluids, chemical wash fluids, and the like. The surface equipment 30 may include piping and other materials used to transport the various fluids described above into the wellbore 28. The surface equipment 30 may also include pumps, electric or gas-powered motors, and other equipment, ¶ 0040).
Claims 12-16 are rejected based upon the same rationale as the rejection of claims 1-4 and 8, respectively, since they are the system claims corresponding to the method claims.
Claims 17-20 are rejected based upon the same rationale as the rejection of claims 1-4 and 8, respectively, since they are the system claims corresponding to the method claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon, listed in the PTO-892, considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure, discloses well and hydrocarbon site management.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANDRE D BOYCE whose telephone number is (571)272-6726. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10a-6:30p.
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/ANDRE D BOYCE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3623 January 5, 2026