Patent ID: 7363206

Claim:
A method of identifying the relative proportions by percent of a plurality of end member components in a sample of reservoir rock taken from a specific oil field by analysis of pyrolytic characterizing data (pcd), the method comprising the steps of: a. identifying the end-member components known to be present in reservoir rock in the oil field; b. preparing individual pyrograms consisting of pcd for each of the components identified in step (a); c. storing the pcd for each component in a digital data file; d. conducting a pyrolytic analysis of a sample from the oil field of reservoir rock that contains one or more hydrocarbon and organic matter components of the type identified in step (a) to obtain pcd for the sample; e. comparing the pcd for the sample with the pcd obtained in step (b) for each of the components, measuring and recording the difference between the sample pcd and the pcd for each of the components; f. applying a statistical analysis to minimize the aggregate differences between the pcd for the sample and a combination of pcd selected from the components; g. recording for retention and display for analysis the resulting pcd that constitutes the minimum aggregate error over the temperature range of the pyrolytic analysis; and h. analyzing the displayed data to identify the respective components.