--> ABSTRACT: XX: Hydrocarbon Exploration Using a Knowledge-Based Approach, by T. Anand, G. Biswas, M. Pai, C. Kendall, R. Cannon, J. Bezdek, and P. Morgan; #91030 (2010)

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XX: Hydrocarbon Exploration Using a Knowledge-Based Approach

T. Anand, G. Biswas, M. Pai, C. Kendall, R. Cannon, J. Bezdek, P. Morgan

The knowledge-based system component of XX (eXpert eXplorer) helps geologists characterize hydrocarbon plays in two steps: (1) determines the salient characteristics of the area of interest and (2) compares this area to analogous known plays and fields in local and global settings. The knowledge-based system component drives a directed question and answer process to derive play characteristics.

The knowledge-based system is established on expert rules-of-thumb that relate features observed in seismic lines, well logs, and outcrop to the characteristics of potential reservoir, source, and seal in terms of sediment type and geometry, plate and depositional setting; facies; stratigraphic, structural, and thermal history; and basin type. In this domain, many data are imprecise and incomplete, and the experts judgmental knowledge is uncertain. An initial prototype of the system has been designed using the EXSYS shell. However, a more extensive system, where uncertainty is modeled by representing domain knowledge as rules with attached belief values defined in the Dempster Shafer framework, is being designed. The system is implemented in MIDST (Mixed Initiative Dempster Shafer Too ), a rule-based expert system shell developed at the University of South Carolina, that currently runs on an Apollo DN3000 workstation. MIDST incorporates mixed-initiative control and inexact reasoning mechanisms based on the Dempster Shafer evidence combination scheme. The system is driven by a user friendly, icon-based, front-end interface.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91030©1988 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, 20-23 March 1988.