Use of paleontological data in long-distance correlation between wells drilled for hydrocarbon exploration

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to briefly review theory and applications of RASC and CASC. The latest versions of these computer programmes employ user-friendly graphic modules. Since 1978, these methods have been widely applied by major oil companies to correlate over long distances between wells drilled for hydrocarbon exploration. The purpose of ranking is to construct an optimum sequence of fossil events for a sedimentary basin. It is an average of the sequences of events in a number of individual sequences. During the scaling, distances are being estimated between the average fossil event positions. In CASC, either the optimum sequence or the scaled optimum sequence is used to construct lines of correlation of probable event positions in different wells. The probable event positions are accompanied by 95% confidence intervals (error bars). Special attention is paid to integration of RASC and CASC with seismic events and the numerical geological timescale.