The Characteristics of Success

Richard Scattolini

The advent of personal computers can bring powerful analytical techniques to individuals for relatively little expense. As with any computer work, database building can be tedious and time consuming. Putting aside the time spent, the way such a database is used is most important. For interpretation work, the effort invested can be a valuable addition to understanding the earth, its hydrocarbon resources, and its drillable prospects.

Using an interactive relational database program and files with discovery-well information, one can determine quickly, and without subsurface mapping, the regional dip direction of a single productive formation. Another possible application is assessing quickly if the magnitude of the discoveries in the county is appropriate for continued investment. Also, it is possible to determine the trend of multiple pay areas within a county. Determining which formations are suitable exploration targets by separating the productive formations stratigraphically is yet another application.

A reasonable estimate of pay thickness can be determined and used for volumetric estimates of hydrocarbon reserves for prospects generated within a county. Other uses include searching the county for the name of an operating company which has recently sold production and examining the characteristics of a single oil or gas field.

Examples from Goliad, Montgomery, and Stephens Counties, Texas, and Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, are used to illustrate these points. These are but a few of a multitude of possible applications available to the earth scientist.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91030©1988 AAPG Annual Convention, Houston, Texas, 20-23 March 1988.