Patent ID: 9593558
Date: 2017-03-14
CPC Classifications: E21B,G01V

Claim:
1. A method for planning a well path, comprising: defining a proxy constraint volume as a three-dimensional (3D) cellular volume having one or more cells, where each cell has at least one value derived from data from a 3D earth model; defining an initial well path within user defined drilling parameter constraints; defining acceptable constraint parameters to be applied to values derived from an intersection of the initial well path and the proxy constraint volume; if the intersection of the initial well path and the proxy constraint volume is within the acceptable constraint parameters, indicating the initial well path is within the acceptable constraint parameters; and if the intersection of the initial well path and the proxy constraint volume is not within the acceptable constraint parameters, iteratively adjusting the initial well path to create successive well paths until at least one of the successive well paths is within the acceptable constraint parameters for the values derived from the intersection of the well path and proxy constraint volume.