IFSA 2007 World Congress

Cancun, Mexico, June 18-21, 2007

SPECIAL SESSION 12SS

SOFT COMPUTING IN PETROLEUM APPLICATIONS

ORGANIZERS: Leonid Sheremetov and Masoud Nikravesh

SCOPE: The advances in Soft Computing Technologies of recent years facilitate their application to numerous areas of industry. One of the main challenges today is the integration of diverse technologies and methodologies of machine intelligence with human intelligence in an effective manner in order to achieve important competitive advantages in industries such oil and gas (O&G) industry.  Tremendous improvements will be achieved if this integration becomes a reality.

In the field of O&G industry, such advantages are in part associated with improvements in reservoir characterization, risk and cost reduction for well logging, optimization of the field production, and field operation. Soft computing technologies may allow the discovery of new low permeability reservoirs, fractured reservoirs, and deep water wells that are considered future oil and gas production fields. In the Refining area, new scheduling and intelligent crude blending techniques will allow problem solving with uncertainties that traditional methods are not able to deal with.

At the same time, the possible use of computing tools for automatic recognition of risk patterns in oil installation is of high value. Risks can come from natural forces like earthquakes, hurricanes or volcano eruptions; or due to illegal human settlements. The prevention of such risks could be made at low cost and high precision using soft computing systems able to process the large volume of data with the required accuracy and efficiency. The economic savings and the decrease of risks to humans is possible using such information management tools.

In spite of the growing number of applications that soft computing finds in, we have only begun to scratch the surface in realizing full benefits of these technologies. Previous Workshops on “Intelligent Computing in the Petroleum Industry” were held in Mexico-city and in Acapulco (associated with IJCAI’03) and gathered together scientists and practitioners from all round the world to share their experiences. Special Session at the ISFA’07 aims to be an open forum for discussion and analysis of the above mentioned topics as well as related ones. The expectation is that its main conclusions could help to enlighten the scientific and technical deployment of soft computing solutions in the O&G industry.

GOAL: To join together scientist and technologists, industrialists and managers involved in soft computing applications for the O&G industry.

TOPICS: Main topics of interest include but are not limited to the application of soft computing technologies to both traditional and emergent areas of O&G industry:

Design and re-design of processes

O&G exploration and production

Geological 3D and 4D models

Intelligent crude blending

Intelligent Process Control

Intelligent reservoir characterization

Risk analysis and contingency management

Smart wells

Supply Chains

CONTACT INFORMATION

Dr. Leonid Sheremetov

Mexican Petroleum Institute,

Research Program on Applied Mathematics and Computer Science

Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas, 152, Col. San Bartolo Atepehuacan

México, D.F., CP 07730, México

tel. (+52) 55-9175-7546

fax. (+52) 55-9175- 7463

e-mail: [email-masked]

Dr. Masoud Nikravesh

Berkeley Initiative in Soft Computing (BISC)

Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

University of California at Berkeley

199MF Cory Hall

Berkeley, CA 94720-1776

Phone: 510-643-4522

E-mail: [email-masked]

URL: http://www-bisc.cs.berkeley.edu

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