DETERMINATION OF HYDROCARBON CONTENT OF UNDERGROUND FORMATION USING EMISSION FLUORESCENCE

摘要

The invention is a method of evaluating a sample of an underground formation to determine the hydrocarbon content of any hydrocarbons present in the formation. It involves the steps of solvating a known volume of a sample in a known volume of a solvent which will solvate hydrocarbons, quantitatively measuring with a fluorometer the emission fluorescence below about 400 nanometers of the solvated sample at an excitation wavelength at which most petroleum compounds fluorescence, and determining the hydrocarbon content of any hydrocarbon present in the sample by comparing the emission fluorescence of said solvated sample to previous correlations. The previous correlations are drawn between known hydrocarbon contents of samples and the emission fluorescence of the known samples in said solvent.