Patent ID: 8165817

Claim:
A method for estimating properties of fluids in rock formations at selected geodetic locations within a geologic basin, comprising: generating an initial model of the basin, the model including as output spatial distribution of at least rock formation mineral composition, rock formation porosity and composition of fluids in the rock formation porosity; generating an initial estimate of fluid composition in at least one rock formation at at least one selected geodetic location within the basin; extracting a sample of fluid with an instrument from pore spaces of the at least one rock formation from within a wellbore drilled therethrough; analyzing composition of the fluid sample from within the wellbore; adjusting the initial model of the basin such that an adjusted initial estimate of fluid composition substantially matches the analyzed composition; generating at least one initial estimate of kerogen type; forward modeling composition of hydrocarbon from the initial estimate of kerogen type and a basin thermal history generated in the initial model; comparing the analyzed composition with the forward modeled composition; adjusting at least one of the initial kerogen type estimate and the thermal history, and repeating the forward modeling until the analyzed composition and the forward modeled composition differ by less than a selected threshold value; and using the adjusted model to generate an initial estimate of fluid composition at at least one additional geodetic location within the basin.