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US 5,328,849 AGranted
Inclusion composition mapping of earth's subsurface using collective fluid inclusion volatile compositions
AssigneeAmoco Corporation
InventorMichael P. Smith
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A collective fluid inclusions volatiles sample is released from each of a plurality of sedimentary rock samples and analyzed as it is being released to determine composition thereof. Compositions are used for mapping the earth's subsurface.
Claims30
A method of exploring the earth's subsurface for indicia of oil and gas comprising:
- selecting gas as a function of location in the earth's subsurface a plurality of sedimentary rock samples spanning a region of interest in the earth's subsurface;
- obtaining chemical compositions of fluid-inclusion-derived gases essentially excluding effect of adsorbed and pore system non-fluid-inclusion derived gases for a plurality of collective fluid inclusion volatiles samples from the plurality of sedimentary rock samples, the chemical compositions being characterized by data scatter and the plurality of sedimentary rock samples being a sufficient plurality for identifying trends in variation in chemical composition in the region of interest in the earth's subsurface notwithstanding said data scatter;
- and
- producing a map of the earth's subsurface representing variation in chemical composition of fluid inclusions between samples, wherein the variation in chemical composition is displayed as a function of areal location in the earth, and for each areal location variation is shown as a function of depth in the earth.
1 more element
A method of exploring the earth's subsurface for indicia of oil and gas comprising:
- selecting gas as a function of location in the earth's subsurface a plurality of sedimentary rock samples spanning a region of interest in the earth's subsurface;
- obtaining chemical compositions of fluid-inclusion-derived gases essentially excluding effect of adsorbed and pore system non-fluid-inclusion derived gases for a plurality of collective fluid inclusion volatiles samples from the plurality of sedimentary rock samples, the chemical compositions being characterized by data scatter and the plurality of sedimentary rock samples being a sufficient plurality for identifying trends in variation in chemical composition in the region of interest in the earth's subsurface notwithstanding said data scatter;
- and
- producing a map of the earth's subsurface representing variation in chemical composition of fluid inclusions between samples by:
- providing mass spectrograms having mass to charge ratio or MCR representative of chemical compositions for the plurality of collective fluid inclusion volatiles samples;
- and
- selecting at least two mass to charge ratio or MCR and representing variation of the relative abundance of one of the mass to charge ratio or MCR to the sum of the relative abundance of the two mass to charge ratios or MCRs.
4 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.