INTEGRATING MULTIPLE MAPPABLE VARIABLES FOR OIL AND GAS EXPLORATION

摘要

Data from multiple surveys of an area of theearth are integrated for use in oil and gas explorationand production. The data of each survey is first griddedand grid node values determined. A map index is assignedto each grid node and grid node values are associated witheach map index to form a grid node suite. The set of gridnode suites is processed to identify and determine covari-ant clusters of variables in multivariate space whichincludes various survey variables but which does notinclude location as a variable. Then, after determiningto which of the clusters each grid node most probably con-tributes, a cluster identifier is associated with arespective grid node index for each grid node. Then acovariant cluster map of cluster identifiers as a functionof grid node indexes is generated. Cluster locations onthe map are correlated with other information about thearea to assign earth features to the covariant clustermap. The map with assigned earth features is used inexploring for oil and gas and other subsurface mineraldeposits.