Investigations about porosity in petroleum reservoir rocks are discussed by Schmoker and Gautier. Pollastro discusses the uses of clay minerals as exploration tools that help to elucidate basin, source-rock, and reservoir history. The status of fission-track analysis, which is useful for determining the thermal and depositional history of deeply buried sedimentary rocks, is outlined by Naeser. The various ways workers have attempted to determine accurate ancient and present-day subsurface temperatures are summarized with numerous references by Barker. Clayton covers three topics: (1) the role of kinetic modeling in petroleum exploration, (2) biological markers as an indicator of depositional environment of source rocks and composition of crude oils, and (3) geochemistry of sulfur in source rocks and petroleum. Anders and Hite evaluate the current status of evaporite deposits as a source for crude oil.
The petroleum industry is enduring difficult financial times because of the continuing depressed price of crude oil on the world market. This has caused major corporate restructuring and reductions in staff throughout the industry. Because oil exploration must now be done with fewer people under more difficult economic constraints, it is essential that the most effective and efficient procedures be used. Computing Risk for Oil Prospects describes how prospect risk assessment — predicting the distribution of financial gains or losses that may result from the drilling of an exploration well — can be done using objective procedures implemented on personal computers. The procedures include analyses of historical data, interpretation of geological and geophysical data, and financial calculations to yield a spectrum of the possible consequences of decisions. All aspects of petroleum risk assessment are covered, from evaluating regional resources, through delineating an individual prospect, to calculation of the financial consequences of alternative decisions and their possible results. The bottom lines are given both in terms of the probable volumes of oil that may be discovered and the expected monetary returns. Statistical procedures are linked with computer mapping and interpretation algorithms, which feed their results directly into routines for financial analysis. The programs in the included library of computer programs are tailored to fit seamlessly together, and are designed for ease and simplicity of operation. The two diskettes supplied are IBM compatible. Full information on loading is given in Appendix A - Software Installation. Risk I diskette contains data files and executables and Risk 2 diskette contains only executables. The authors contend that the explorationist who develops a prospect should be involved in every facet of its analysis, including risk and financial assessments. This book provides the tools necessary for these tasks.
February issue includes Appendix entitled Directory of United States Government periodicals and subscription publications; September issue includes List of depository libraries; June and December issues include semiannual index
