Kharaka has been a research hydrogeochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey since 1975. His investigations have emphasized waterrock interactions in petroliferous sedimentary basins. Current research covers the fields of water-rock-gas interactions, CO2 sequestration in saline aquifers, contamination from agricultural drainage and petroleum-produced water, and fluid-fault interactions. Kharaka ...

This paper presents the S-Chart framework, an approach for semantic image interpretation of line charts; and the InteliStrata system, an application for semantic interpretation of gamma ray profiles. The S-Chart framework is structured as a set of knowledge models and algorithms that can be instantiated to accomplish chart interpretation in all sorts of domains. The knowledge models are represe...

This report is preliminary and has not been reviewed for conformity with U. S. Geo'ogical Survey editorial standards (or with the North American Stratigraphic Code). Any use of trade, product, or firm names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U. S. Government. INTRODUCTION Predicting the gas:oil ratio (GOR) of a petroleum play or prospect is important in evalu...

Optimization of reservoir parameters is an important issue in petroleum exploration and production. The Ant Colony Optimization(ACO) is a recent approach to solve discrete and continuous optimization problems. In this paper, the Ant Colony Optimization is usedas an intelligent tool to estimate reservoir rock properties. The methodology is illustrated by using a case study on shear wave velocity...

The paper considers the problem of optimal sequential design for graphical models. Oil and gas exploration is the main application. Here, the outcomes at prospects or reservoir units are highly dependent on each other. The joint probability model for all node variables is considered known. As data is collected, this probability model is updated. The sequential design problem entails a dynamic s...

We propose a flexible framework for evaluating prospect dependencies in oil and gas exploration and for solving decisionmaking problems in this context. The model uses a Bayesian network (BN) for encoding the dependencies in a geologic system at source, reservoir, and trap levels. We discuss different evaluation criteria that allow us to formulate specific decision problems and solve these with...