Articles
Predicting Mineralogy from Elastic Rock Properties
Rob Holt and Bill Westwood
In contrast to conventional reservoirs, where the measured elastic rock properties are sensitive to changes in facies, porosity and pore fluids, we find that changes in the elastic rock properties of low porosity unconventional plays are driven largely by changes in the relative fractions of the dominant minerals that form…
An Overview of Microseismic Acquisition Project Management
Jubran Akram and Atila da Silva Paes
In the past decade, the boom of stimulation and production from the unconventional reservoirs have made microseismic monitoring a commonly used technology in the petroleum industry. However, the recent business challenges faced by the petroleum industry have amplified the need for cost optimization while achieving the maximum benefits from a…
Inversion in Depth?
Satinder Chopra
An interesting idea that was highlighted at the recently concluded 2015 SEG Convention at New Orleans was about carrying out seismic impedance inversion in the depth domain. ‘Inversion’ refers to the transformation of seismic amplitude data into acoustic impedance data. Seismic data represent an interface property wherein reflection events are…
Value Thinking from the Classical to the Hyper-Modern
Lee Hunt
The modern geoscientist has access to an unrivaled depth of geoscientific knowledge. There seems to be a technique for everything, and an available level of detail to fit any issue. More articles, more ideas, more complex formulae, more everything. Famed geoscientists argue certain technical minutiae the way old theists would…
Introduction To January Focus: Geoscience Innovations – Best of GeoConvention 2015
Rob McGrory
Our joint annual convention has been the principal technical conference for Canadian earth scientists principally working in the petroleum industry. The purpose is to communicate, and stay informed about the latest developments in our profession, and network with fellow professionals. The three societies involved in GeoConvention are the Canadian Well…
Gravity Monitoring of 4D Fluid Migration in SAGD Reservoirs – Forward Modelling
E. Judith Elliott and Alexander Braun
The feasibility of time-lapse gravity and gravity gradient monitoring for Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Reservoirs is investigated. Two major obstacles have prevented the use of time-lapse gravimetry on small scale reservoirs, namely i) the need for sub-μGal sensitivity, and ii) the high noise levels in the vicinity of the…
Using the Scattering Transform to Predict Stratigraphic Units from Well Logs
Ben Bougher and Felix J. Herrmann
Applications of machine learning (ML) have become ubiquitous across many domains in both academia and industry. Voice and facial recognition are now robust features in smart phones and cameras, while text learning and behaviour tracking on the internet have created a commodity market for data. Self-driving cars and spatially aware…
Reading Between the Lines II: A NEBC Shale Gas Quantitative Interpretation Case Study Incorporating Multi-Component Data
Laurie Weston Bellman, Jennifer Leslie-Panek, Pamela Reid and Eric von Lunen
The objective of this case study (Weston Bellman et al., 2015a) was to enhance and improve the prediction of facies and geomechanical properties of a shale reservoir interval. The conditioning, analysis and blending of the converted-wave (PS) data into the more conventional quantitative interpretation (QI) will be described to illustrate…
Cost-Effective Seismic Exclusion Zone Mitigation Using Optimal Station Prediction (OSP) Method
Andrea Crook
For large seismic exclusion zones affecting numerous source and/or receiver stations, should all the stations within the exclusion be skidded or offset around the edges of the exclusion, or should select stations that provide the most geophysical and economic value be used instead? How do we quantify station value? Is…
Working Visually with the Wavefield
Dr. Steven Lynch
Seismic begins life as an analog acoustic wavefield. We record it digitally and we process it digitally but it is, in its natural state, continuous in both time and space. Despite the venerable familiarity of conventional seismic displays, seismic does not naturally segregate into individual (wiggle) traces and it does…
Intro to December Focus: Land Seismic in Complex Basins
Rob Kendall
Welcome to this special issue of the RECORDER, with a focus on land seismic in complex basins which presents three papers on land acquisition, new recording equipment, acquisition planning, and resulting improvements in imaging and interpretation.
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Cableless Seismic Acquisition
Rob Kendall
Cableless, wireless or cable-free (we will use the term cableless in this discussion) seismic recording systems do not transfer data back to a central recording system and they do not transfer power to multiple stations through cables. The majority of them are autonomous with the data being recorded on flash…
Imaging the Overturned Limb of a Footwall Syncline and its Impact on Exploration in Fold and Thrust Belts
Andrew C. Newson
The hydrocarbon exploration of the Western Canada Fold and Thrust Belt (WCFTB) is over 100 years old. For the last 70 years it has been greatly aided by seismic imaging techniques which have provided an understanding of the deep structures. Even so, this process is still full of surprises as…
Land Seismic Acquisition Testing Strategies and Results – Southern Chad, Africa 2013-2015
Andrea Crook, Paul Stephenson and Chaminda Sandanayake
Seismic acquisition testing provided tremendous benefit by improving subsurface imaging, increasing operational efficiency and reducing costs. Test results were used to improve operations in real time as data was being acquired, with the cooperation of seismic contractor BGP International (Chad). This paper will provide an overview of the seismic acquisition…
CSEG 2016/2017 Executive Election
Review of Candidiates for 2016-2017 CSEG Executive Election.
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Intro to November Focus: Programming in Geoscience
Matteo Niccoli
There have been two instances so far during my career as a geoscientist in which programming has been the key ingredient to solving a problem. The first was in 2003 during my graduate research work at the University of Calgary. I was tasked with the analysis of multicomponent data recorded…
“Small software” to the Rescue
Steve Lynch
Over the years I have heard Software Development described any number of ways. The one that fits best is to me the statement that it is “a celebration of the brute force machismo of mutant hero developers”. I don’t know about the hero part but I am certainly one of…
Open Collaboration: Hackathons and Tomorrow’s Subsurface Software
Matt Hall
There’s a quiet revolution happening in subsurface science and engineering software. The last one happened about 12 years ago when powerful Linux and Windows PCs dropped under $20k and displaced Sun workstations, lowering the bar to fast, attractive 3D visualization. But, looking back, it happened in slow motion and at…
Feasibility in Setting up a Rayleigh Wave Explorer in Matlab
Enrico Caffagni
The word ‘Program’ (Wiktionary, 2006) derived from Ancient Greek πρόγραμμα (prógramma, “a written public notice, an edict”), from the verb προγράφω (prográphō, πρό (pró, “before”) + γράφω (gráphō, “I write”)). ‘If I write before’, I should have already planned and thought what to write. Programming is conceptually related to an…
