Method and apparatus for petroleum and gas exploration

US5311484A · kind A · utility

Assignee

• The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York · US

Inventors

• Roger N. Anderson · New York, US
• Wei He · Tappan, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jul 26, 1991
• Grant date: May 10, 1994
• Expiry date: Jul 26, 2011

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G01V2210/51
• WIPO field: Measurement
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

In the exploration for petroleum or natural gas, drilling targets are identified by locating local maxima of horizontal gradient in the top-of-geopressure surface of a region of exploration. The probability of finding hydrocarbon deposits is significantly improved where the drilling targets are local maxima of the horizontal gradient in the top-of-geopressure surface which coincide with local maxima of subsurface heat flow in the region of exploration, particularly where the local maxima in the horizontal gradient of the top-of-geopressured surface is concentrated across major fault offsets and are parallel to the predominant strike directions of the faults. The top-of-geopressure surface may be remotely sensed by performing complex trace analysis on reflection seismic traces gathered for the region of exploration to derive corresponding reflection strength attribute traces. The corresponding reflection strength traces are first smoothed and then subject to further complex trace analysis to derive the envelope amplitudes of the smoothed reflection strength traces, which are referred to as second reflection strength traces. The second reflection strength traces are then analyzed to …