Patent Document ID: 20030110017
Application ID: 10013195
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A method of scheduling cyclic steaming of a plurality of petroleum-containing wells comprising: (a) inputting to a production-predicting means a plurality of data describing at least in part the past cyclic steaming and resulting production of a plurality of petroleum-containing wells; (b) processing said data in said production-predicting means and outputting a plurality of production predictions for said plurality of wells during a future steaming cycle; (c) inputting said plurality of production predictions into an Optimal Cycle Length scheduling means, thereby producing an initial steaming cycle schedule; (d) inputting said plurality of production predictions and said initial steaming cycle schedule for said plurality of wells into said optimization means; (e) processing said plurality of production predictions and said initial steaming cycle schedule in said optimization means by the steps comprising: (1) determining a ranking for said initial steaming cycle schedule for said plurality of production predictions against pre- determined ranking criteria; (2) producing in a schedule optimization algorithm a plurality of new steaming cycle schedules based on said ranking of said initial steaming cycle; (3) determining a ranking for said new steaming cycle schedules against said pre-determined ranking criteria; (4) repeating said production of new steaming cycle schedules and determining ranking steps until some pre-determined termination criteria are met; and (5) outputting a final steaming cycle schedule.