Patent Document ID: 8209202
Application ID: 11415394
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method comprising: (a) a computer system receiving first information specifying a set of uncertainty variables that characterize uncertainties associated with a plurality of assets, wherein the first information also specifies a functional relationship between a first and a second of the uncertainty variables, wherein the first uncertainty variable is associated with a first of the assets, wherein the second uncertainty variable is associated with a second of the assets, wherein the assets are assets related to the exploration and production of one or more of oil and gas, wherein the first asset is a first oil and/or gas field, wherein the second asset is a second oil and/or gas field, wherein the uncertainty variables include a volume of hydrocarbons associated with the first asset, and a producibility of hydrocarbons associated with the first asset, wherein the uncertainty variables also include the prices of oil and gas; (b) the computer system generating values for each of the uncertainty variables, wherein said generating includes generating a value for the first uncertainty variable, and computing a value for the second uncertainty variable from the value of the first uncertainty variable based on the functional relationship; (c) the computer system determining for each of the assets a corresponding input data set using at least a corresponding subset of the uncertainty variable values, wherein said determining includes: determining a first input data set corresponding to the first asset using at least the value of the first uncertainty variable; and determining a second input data set corresponding to the second asset using at least the value of the second uncertainty variable; (d) for each of the assets, the computer system invoking execution of a corresponding set of one or more algorithms, wherein each set of one or more algorithms operates on the corresponding input data set to generate a corresponding output data set; (e) the computer system performing (b), (c) and (d) a plurality of times to generate a respective plurality of output data sets for each asset; (f) the computer system computing one or more statistics for each of the assets based on the corresponding plurality of output data sets; (g) the computer system generating resultant data based at least partially on the statistics of the assets, wherein the resultant data includes a functional combination of the statistics of the plurality of assets; (h) the computer system displaying an indication of the resultant data on a display device; (i) the computer system receiving second information specifying a plurality of decision variables, wherein the decision variables include a number of wells to drill in the first asset; (j) the computer system generating values for the decision variables, wherein the decision variable values are used to determine the input data sets for the assets; (k) the computer system computing a value of a global objective from the one or more statistics of each of the assets; and the computer system executing an optimizer in order to determine one or more sets of values for the decision variables, wherein said executing the optimizer includes performing at least (j), (e), (f) and (k) a number of times, wherein the optimizer is configured to search for a maximum or minimum of the global objective over at least a portion of a space defined by the decision variables.