“…Compared with univariate or bivariate techniques, which only deal with one or two variables at a time, multivariate techniques treat all of the data simultaneously using matrix algebra, and describe a sample by a point in space that has as many axes as variables (Peters et al, 2005). Some applications of chemometrics in petroleum geochemistry include those described by Christie et al (1984), Peters et al (1986Peters et al ( , 2000Peters et al ( , 2007Peters et al ( , 2008aPeters et al ( ,b, 2013, Zumberge et al (2005), and He et al (2012). In the present study, a chemometric method, i.e., ALS from Pirouette Ò software (Infometrix, Inc.) was employed.…”