--> ABSTRACT: Buried TLDs in Oil Exploration, Shengping Oil Field, China, by Frederic R. Siegel, Hu Decheng, Wang Zaiming, and J. Eduardo Vaz; #91030 (2010)

Datapages, Inc.Print this page

Buried TLDs in Oil Exploration, Shengping Oil Field, China

Frederic R. Siegel, Hu Decheng, Wang Zaiming, J. Eduardo Vaz

Thermoluminescence dosimeters (TLDs) buried at a 50-cm depth for 110 days were integrators of radiation signals at the Shengping oil field, northeast China. The extended period of signal registry reduced the environmental interferences (e.g., barometric pressure, temperature) that cause problems in reproducibility and hence reliability of short-term transient measurements (e.g., with a gamma-ray spectrometer) or aeroradiometric measurements. The Shengping oil pool has seven producing wells. Radiation highs found as halos or arcuate forms outline the perimeters of exploration targets, the low-radiation-activity zones. Both LiF and CaSO4 TLDs identified the zones with six of the seven producing wells. One producing well, drilled during the TLD burial period, was nknown to us. When the radiometric maps were shown to the Daqing oil field geologists, they told us that the CaSO4 TLD data targeted the well. When the LiF and CaSO4 TLD data sets were combined using the Chinese RESMA computer approach, the resulting iso-contour maps showed all seven producing wells.

The TLD method is labor intensive (good for exploration in less developed countries) and the TLDs are inexpensive and reusable. TLD work can lower exploration front-end costs by identifying small areas in a large region for directed seismic work. The TLD method can also be applied to identifying oil and natural gas field extensions. Finally, the TLD method can be used in oil exploration programs in permafrost areas where other radiation measuring methods may be unreliable.

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