IP Library › Granted Patent US 12,625,289
Granted Patent B2
US 12,625,289 · App. 18/109,553 · Granted May 12, 2026

Determining well productivity for hydraulically fractured wells

Inventors: Abdallah A. AlShehri (Dhahran, SA); Klemens Katterbauer (Dhahran, SA)
Assignee: Saudi Arabian Oil Company
G01V1/181E21B43/26E21B47/117E21B49/00E21B47/07
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 12,625,289
App. No.
18/109,553
Granted
May 12, 2026
Kind
B2
Abstract

Methods and systems for determining well productivity include acquiring measurement data from a plurality of in-situ sensors located within a hydraulically fractured subterranean formation; classifying the noise degree for sensors of the plurality based on the acquired measurement data; selecting sensors from the plurality by minimizing noise degree while maintaining coverage of the subterranean formation above a user defined threshold; extracting data from the selected sensors; and estimating fracture half-length and well productivity potential based on the extracted data.

Claims (44)

1 . A method for determining well productivity, the method comprising:

acquiring measurement data from a plurality of in-situ sensors located within fractures in a hydraulically fractured well in a subterranean formation;

classifying a noise degree for sensors of the plurality, the noise degree representing a quality of the acquired measurement data from the sensors of the plurality;

reducing effects of noise in the measurement data while maintaining coverage of the fractures above a threshold by selecting sensors from the plurality based on the noise degree classification and based on a physical distribution of the in-situ sensors in the fractures;

extracting data from the selected sensors having the physical distribution and having the noise degree satisfying the threshold; and

estimating fracture half-length and well productivity potential based on the extracted data.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the minimizing comprises a mixed-integer programming framework.

3 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: filtering measurement data from the plurality of in-situ sensors to remove noise from the measurement data, the filtering comprising artificial intelligence (AI) window filtering that is based on a radial basis function neural network.

4 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: accessing, from a data store, data comprising at least one of rock property data, hydraulic fracturing parameter data, and sensor location data; combining the accessed data with the extracted data from the selected sensors; and estimating fracture half-length and well productivity potential based on the combined data.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising: estimating a well productivity based on at least one of the estimated fracture half-length and well productivity potential, wherein the estimating comprises a decline curve analysis.

6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the decline curve analysis comprises a long short-term memory framework to predict declines in production based on a time-series of well productivity.

7 . The method of claim 5 , further comprising: monitoring a production well to determine well leakage based on the estimated well productivity and the measured production.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein estimating fracture half-length and well productivity potential is based on a pretrained XGBoost machine learning model.

9 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the measurement data include at least one of temperature, pressure, and chemical concentration.

10 . A system for estimating well productivity, the system comprising:

a plurality of in-situ sensors;

a base station;

at least one processor; and

a memory storing instructions that when executed by the at least one processor cause the at least one processor to perform operations comprising:

acquiring measurement data from the plurality of in-situ sensors located within fractures in a hydraulically fractured well in a subterranean formation;

classifying a noise degree for sensors of the plurality, the noise degree representing a quality of the acquired measurement data from the sensors of the plurality;

reducing effects of noise in the measurement data while maintaining coverage of the fractures above a threshold by selecting sensors from the plurality based on the noise degree classification and based on a physical distribution of the in-situ sensors in the fractures;

extracting data from the selected sensors having the physical distribution and having the noise degree satisfying the threshold; and

estimating fracture half-length and well productivity potential based on the extracted data.

11 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the in-situ sensors comprise an energy harvesting module to harvest vibrational energy.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the in-situ sensors induce vibrations within fractures of the subterranean formation larger than microseismic events emitted by the fracture to improve detectability of microseismic events by geophones.

13 . The system of claim 10 , the operations further comprising:

filtering measurement data from the plurality of in-situ sensors to remove noise from the measurement data, the filtering comprising artificial intelligence (AI) window filtering that is based on a radial basis function neural network.

14 . The system of claim 10 , the operations further comprising:

estimating a well productivity based on at least one of the estimated fracture half-length and well productivity potential, wherein the estimating comprises a decline curve analysis comprising a long short-term memory framework to predict declines in production based on a time-series of well productivity.

15 . The system of claim 10 , wherein estimating fracture half-length and well productivity potential is based on a pretrained XGBoost machine learning model.

16 . One or more non-transitory machine-readable storage devices storing instructions for determining well productivity, the instructions being executable by one or more processing devices to cause performance of operations comprising:

acquiring measurement data from a plurality of in-situ sensors located within fractures in a hydraulically fractured well in a subterranean formation;

classifying a noise degree for sensors of the plurality, the noise degree representing a quality of the acquired measurement data from the sensors of the plurality;

reducing effects of noise in the measurement data while maintaining coverage of the fractures above a threshold by selecting sensors from the plurality based on the noise degree classification and based on a physical distribution of the in-situ sensors in the fractures;

extracting data from the selected sensors having the physical distribution and having the noise degree satisfying the threshold; and

estimating fracture half-length and well productivity potential based on the extracted data.

17 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage devices of claim 16 , the operations further comprising:

filtering measurement data from the plurality of in-situ sensors to remove noise from the measurement data, the filtering comprising artificial intelligence (AI) window filtering that is based on a radial basis function neural network.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage devices of claim 16 , the operations further comprising:

estimating a well productivity based on at least one of the estimated fracture half-length and well productivity potential, wherein the estimating comprises a decline curve analysis comprising a long short-term memory framework to predict declines in production based on a time-series of well productivity.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage devices of claim 18 , the operations further comprising:

monitoring a production well to determine well leakage based on the estimated well productivity and the measured production.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage devices of claim 16 , wherein estimating fracture half-length and well productivity potential is based on a pretrained XGBoost machine learning model.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Apr 19, 2023
From: ALSHEHRI, ABDALLAH A.; KATTERBAUER, KLEMENS
To: SAUDI ARABIAN OIL COMPANY
Reel/Frame 063369/0457 →
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20240272320A1 · Aug 15, 2024
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