Articles
The Effect of M&A’s on Geophysics
Gordon Cope
The office of geophysicist Matthew Candle* is a small cubicle filled with a desk, a telephone and three seismic monitors. Noticeably absent are family photos, diplomas and other personal effects. “I don’t want to have to carry out more than one box,” he simply states. Over the course of a…
Adding the Coherence Dimension to 3D Seismic Data
Satinder Chopra
If the mounting success story of any technology be adopted as a yardstick for its acceptance, three-dimensional (3D) seismic definitely asserts itself at the forefront of advances made in hydrocarbon exploration in the last 30 years. 3D seismic surveys are being carried out not only for exploration but development projects…
Leadership in Global Communications
David Mitrovica
Global managers - and the increasing number of Albertans working abroad - must be skilled communicators. Indeed, in a world with more than 37,000 transnational corporations and 207,000 foreign affiliates, cross-cultural communications is the most basic skill that global managers must cultivate. In my view, it is also the skill…
A Glimpse of 11,000-Year Old Inhabitants of Alberta
L.V. Hills, B. Kooyman, S. Tolman and P. McNeil
The St. Mary Dam, completed in 1950, recently required modification of its spillway. This resulted in lowering of water levels in the reservoir by about 10 metres. This allowed wind action to erode exposed late Pleistocene and Holocene sediments. Shayne Tolman visited the site with two of his sons, found…
Xogen – Tapwater as Fuel?
Stewart Trickett
I first heard about Xogen (pronounced “ex-o-jen”) Power Inc. of Calgary from a co-worker to whom I had been bragging about my stock market profits from a hydrogen fuel cell company. He referred me to Xogen’s web site at “www.xogen.com”. It begins credibly enough with a greetings from premier Ralph…
CSEG Scholarship Awards Program
Gordon Cope
For 30 years, the CSEG has been awarding scholarships to worthy geophysical students. From 1968 to 1999, a total of $610,862 has been disbursed to undergraduate and graduate students in universities and technical colleges across the country. This year, the committee awarded 17 scholarships of $1,500, a total of $25,500.…
Effect of Well Control on Constrained Sparse Spike Seismic Inversion
John Pendrel and Paul Van Riel
Modern seismic inversion methods transform seismic reflection data to pseudo acoustic impedance logs. Implicit in this approach is an integration of low frequency model information with higher frequencies from the seismic. This is necessary since the low frequencies present in logs and therefore required by the inversion, are absent in…
Odyssey of Oil
Oliver Kuhn
This article looks at how and where ancient humans found oil and gas, explores some examples of ancient oil industries in North America and the Middle East, and finally tells the story of a relatively unknown culture whose existence was inextricably intertwined with the economics and politics of an ancient…
Amplitude-vs-Offset and Seismic Rock Property Analysis: A Primer
Michael Burianyk
In this article, we’ll examine the basics of amplitude variations with offset (AVO) and rock properties derived from them. First we’ll look at the physical cause for AVO behavior. We’ll then discuss the quantitative methodologies for calculating attributes which describe the AVO behavior of pre-stack seismic data. At the same…
Eigen-Image Analysis as a Quality Control Tool to Improve Deconvolution
Xishuo Wang
Surface consistent deconvolutions have become increasingly more sophisticated and as a result onshore deconvolution can be seen as a mysterious black box process. Many of the available QC displays are difficult to interpret, mainly because it is hard to display the spatial distribution of frequency- variable effects, especially with 3D…
Visualization Centres
Gordon Cope
Recently, the CSEG Continuing Education Committee organized a tour of five visualization centres in the downtown core. The Recorder reports on their unique features and focus.
... An Interview with Elaine Honsberger, P.Geoph. Chair of APEGGA’s Geoscience Task Force
Nordahl Flakstad
For the last two years, a Geoscience Task Force struck by APEGGA Council has sought ways to make geologists and geophysicists feel they are more a part of the Association. The current Task Force Chair, Elaine Honsberger, P.Geoph., recently shared some thoughts on what has been accomplished and on what…
Depth Imaging of Foothills Seismic Data
Larry Lines, Samuel Gray and Don Lawton
Our CSEG luncheon talk (October 11, 2000) will give highlights of the CSEG publication entitled “Depth Imaging of Foothills Seismic Data”. The book and its accompanying short course (given at five Canadian universities) were both products of a CSEG Superfund Project and a CSEG Fiftieth Anniversary Project. The talk will…
B2B and the Oilpatch
Gordon Cope
Business to Business (B2B) is exploding in the oilpatch. How will geophysicists be affected? B2B is the buying and selling of raw materials, finished goods, information and services between companies over the Internet. For instance, B2B systems allow firms to electronically purchase everything from pencils and paper to seismic lines…
Acquisition Footprint – Its Detection and Removal
Satinder Chopra and Glen Larsen
Acquisition footprint is a term used to define linear spatial grid patterns seen on 3D seismic time slices. These patterns tend to ‘mirror’ parts of the acquisition geometry used for acquiring the seismic survey. They may be seen usually on shallow time slices or horizon amplitude maps as striations masking…
CSEG By-Laws
The original Bylaws were registered with the Registrar of Companies on August 8, 1977. Amendments to the bylaws were approved by extraordinary resolutions on December 13, 1977 and April 13, 1978. These amendments were registered on September 18, 1978. Further amendments were recommended and accepted by the Executive on August…
Proposed Amendments to CSEG By-Laws
Printed here are a series of amendments to the current bylaws of our society. Ashort explanation of the reasons behind the changes is in order. (October 2000)
... Achieving Consistent and Stable Phase with Mixed-Source Surveys
Douglas Hart and Bruce Hootman
So as to minimize the cost of data acquisition, the use of different seismic sources is common in land and marine transition zone surveys. Mixed sources within a survey, however, introduce complications to the data processing effort. Similar difficulties arise when merging 3-D surveys. A key issue to address, in…
The Great Seismic Round-Up: The Canadian Forest Oil Story
D. Uffen, L. Michetti, L. Dickson, J. Churchill, J. Hay, L. Geck and A.Janzen
Seismic data may be the least understood commodity within the oil industry. The evolution of seismic technology has seen seismic data take greater prominence in developing prospects to mitigate drilling risk. This has led to widespread use of seismic data and a proliferation of companies with ownership rights. The practiced…
Does the Physics of an Exploration Play Support AVO Analysis in Prospect Evaluation?
Yongyi Li, Lee Hunt and Jonathan Downton
Whenever a new exploration play is brought to a geophysicist the question of its seismic explorability is posed. This question must be answered quickly and accurately because the explorability determines how the play will be pursued or even if it will be pursued. Given the current interest in lithology and…
