Patent Document ID: 4633182
Application ID: 06572165
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An electrical geophysical method for direct and diagnostic prospecting of hydrocarbon deposits, consisting in that (a) a transmitting array is set up with transmitting electrodes forming a star pattern, and square transmitting induction loop(s), three corners of each said loop being defined by the locations of the central and two adjacent outer electrodes; (b) a measuring array is set up within each said loop, with one measuring electrode positioned at the center of the loop and the other measuring electrodes positioned at the midpoint of each side of the loop to form a star shape, and three orthogonal magnetometers positioned near the center of the loop; (c) these arrays are set up at a number of locations on the earth's surface overlying known hydrocarbon deposits and known barren volumes; (d) for each such positioning of these arrays, signals are produced at a number of frequencies within the frequency range of about 0.01 cycles per second to about 10 cycles per second; (e) for each such frequency, the signal is amplified and used to power numerous combinations of connections of transmitting electrodes or transmitting induction loop(s), each such connection representing a unique electromagnetic wave code and producing a unique electromagnetic field in the earth's subsurface; (f) the measuring array is used to measure the various components of each electromagnetic field at each combination of transmitted frequency and electromagnetic wave code, said components being in the form of waveform signals and being measured simultaneously by circuits formed by various combinations of measuring electrode connections and by the orthogonal magnetometers; (g) the processor forming part of the receiving system is programmed, using commonly used Pattern Recognition and cluster analysis methods, in such a way that the phase and amplitude values of the waveform signals obtained from locations over known hydrocarbon reserves and known barren volumes are recorded on a data storage device, then separated into classes in said processor according to whether the location is hydrocarbon bearing or barren, with values obtained from locations with variable quantities of hydrocarbon reserves forming subclasses within the class of values obtained from known hydrocarbon bearing locations, the classified values being re-recorded on a data storage device; (h) an identical set of measurements is made at each of a number of prospecting locations (i.e. locations for which it is desired to know whether or not hydrocarbons exist), the set of such locations comprising a geophysical measuring grid, whereafter the set of phase and amplitude values derived from each such prospecting location is stored on a data storage device and then compared in the processor to the stored classes of values representing hydrocarbon bearing and barren locations, each said prospecting location being assigned a level of probability based on the degree of pattern recognition to each of said classes; (i) after drilling confirms a new deposit or a barren zone at a prospecting location, it may be reclassified as a known hydrocarbon bearing location or a known barren location, and the data from said prospecting location may be reprocessed along with all other data obtained from known hydrocarbon bearing, barren and prospecting locations to produce a revised value of the level of probability for each prospecting location.