Schlumberger, Conrad

Conrad Schlumberger is a German geophysicist who invented, with his brother Marcel, electrical well logging, a technology that eliminated much of the guesswork associated with determining whether a formation held oil or natural gas (1921). Electric well logs record the conductivity of interstitial water in rocks, the movement of drilling mud into porous strata, and the movement of formation water into the well bore. In 1927, a 1,640-ft (500-m) well in France’s Pechelbronn field successfully employed the world’s first electric log using successive resistivity readings to create a resistivity curve.

Sources

  •  Cleveland, Cutler (Lead Author); Peter Saundry (Topic Editor). 2008. "Schlumberger, Conrad." In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Information Coalition, National Council for Science and the Environment). [First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth March 6, 2007; Last revised August 22, 2008; Retrieved June 26, 2009]. <http://www.eoearth.org/article/Schlumberger,_Conrad>

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