Patent · US Active

Plunger lift state estimation and optimization using acoustic data

US10883491B2 · kind B2 · utility

1Cited by
4References
12Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 29, 2016
Grant dateJan 5, 2021
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 10, 2038

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG01V2200/16
  • WIPO fieldCivil engineering
  • WIPO sectorOther fields

Abstract

A method of probabilistically estimating a velocity of a plunger of a beam pump may comprise continuously monitoring well acoustics using a plurality of passive acoustic sensors attached to external structures of the beam pump; digitizing outputs of the plurality of passive acoustic sensors and sending the digitized outputs to a computing device for storage and processing; and using the digitized outputs of the plurality of passive acoustic sensors, estimating a probability of the velocity of the plunger using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to represent a probability of a position and the probability of the velocity of the plunger, the HMM comprising a state space model and an observational model.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.