Practical Petroleum Geochemistry

This book shows how geochemical data aids in the finding of hydrocarbons by following consistent rules of interpretation. It is a review of the techniques used in interpretation of data and will be an essential manual for all those in the field of petroleum exploration. Based on lecture notes used by Brian Cooper when giving courses to petroleum geologists, geophysicists and trainee geochemists over the last 15 years, this book is also the distillation of the experience gained in attempting more than 100 basin evaluations and the interpretation of several thousand well sections. Many aspects of petroleum geochemistry have changed over this period of time, due mainly to the introduction of increasingly sophisticated analytical techniques and the wealth of data which they have produced. Concepts have evolved or been abandoned, new concepts have been introduced. This book shows how petroleum geochemistry can be used routinely and with consistency in exploration.