Virtual Intelligence and Its Applications in Oil and Gas Industry

This short course will cover the fundamentals of virtual intelligence and will provide the theoretical background for its most used components such as artificial neural networks, evolutionary computing, and fuzzy logic. The short course will then provide some insight on the type of problems that can be solved using the virtual intelligence techniques and the types of problems that are not suited for VI. The last part of the short course will be devoted to actual application of these tools in petroleum and natural gas engineering. These applications will cover areas such as reservoir characterization, well testing, PVT analysis and multi-phase flow and hydraulic fracturing. 

Virtual Intelligence is a collection of several analytical tools that attempts to mimic life. These tools (include but are not limited to, artificial neural networks, evolutionary computing, and fuzzy logic) are being used in many commercial products. Their application in oil and gas industry is fairly new. A handful of researchers and practitioners have concentrated their efforts to provide intelligent tools for the petroleum industry.  Virtual intelligence tools have been used to Optimize Hydraulic Fracture Designs, Characterize oil and gas reservoirs, Optimize drilling operation, Interpret well logs, generate virtual magnetic resonance logs, select candidate wells for stimulation and predict post fracture deliverability.