Articles

2014/2015 Executive Election

Recorder Committee

Asteroseismology: Stealing the geoseismologists’ rule book and launching it into space

Jaymie Matthews

Astronomers have been trying to update the biography of the Sun for decades, at the same time trying to confirm our models for its internal structure. Like the Earth – of which we can sample directly less than 0.2% of its total depth – most of the interior of the…

Introduction to November’s Focus: AVO Inversion

Franck Delbecq

In this special issue on inversion, I have the honour of introducing three very interesting articles which all use inversion techniques as well as deductive, inductive and Sherlock’s abductive reasoning to crack (sometimes literally) the mysteries of our reservoirs.

Geophysical insights into completions and production predictability for a shale gas reservoir using fault intensity and AVO inversion

Carl Reine and Sean Lovric

We show that fault intensity and AVO inversion offer insights into hydraulic fracturing operations in a shale-gas reservoir. This is supported by microseismic data using calculations of event density, SRV dimensions, b-value, D-value, and hydraulic diffusivity. We also demonstrate that fault intensity is linked to the azimuthal anisotropy of the…

Using uncertainty in quantitative seismic characterization

Rémi Moyen

Over the past two decades, the overall trend has been for a more quantitative use of seismic in building geomodels and interpreting subsurface data. Acoustic seismic inversion has become commonplace, and more complex techniques tend to move closer to a direct modeling of petro-physical properties such as porosity or fluid…

Quantitative seismic interpretation – an earth modeling perspective

Damien Thenin and Ron Larson

Earth models are routinely used in the oil & gas industry to integrate multidisciplinary data for subsurface property predictions. While most earth models predict reasonably well at the field scale, they often fail to accurately predict the subsurface conditions at a specific location, especially in stratigraphically complex reservoirs.

Proceedings of an unsession

Matt Hall & Evan Bianco

Some time in 2012, we started to feel like we – those of us in this industry – were missing an opportunity (ageo.co/conffail). Some big conferences have five or ten thousand attendees. But that’s all most of them are – attendees. Not participants, or contributors, just spectators. They mostly sit…

Seismic Clustering Uncloistered – Application to Resource Plays

Kurt J. Marfurt

Clustering algorithms are used every day in marketing – from the good people at Amazon suggesting you buy a structural geology book based on your most recent purchase, to those at Google popping up a coupon on your smart phone when your GPS tells them you are once again standing…

Introduction to the special section on ‘Microseismic’

Bill Goodway

Passive microseismic monitoring has been a key technology used to map the stimulated portion of the reservoir through locating the sources of seismic waves generated by various modes of hydro-frac induced rock failure. The method was initially proposed as far back as the 70’s and published in a paper titled…

Microseismic Case Study: Getting the most from your microseismic survey

Michael Doerksen

A junior oil and gas company was preparing to develop the Cardium sand on their acreage in the Willesden Green area of Alberta. To optimally drain the acreage, horizontal well density and the number of frac stages employed using multi stage fracture stimulation was questioned. To answer this, they contracted…

The influence of HTI anisotropy on microseismic event location – a case study from a tight gas field in British Columbia

Zuolin Chen, Barbara Cox and Colin Perkins

VTI anisotropy has been proven to have a large impact on the location accuracy of microseismic events associated with hydraulic fracture monitoring (e.g., Erwemi et al., 2010, Maxwell et al., 2010 ). However, the influence of HTI anisotropy on microseismic event location has rarely been taken into consideration and measured.…

Unintentional Seismicity Induced by Hydraulic Fracturing

Shawn Maxwell

Hydraulic fracturing normally creates only small magnitude events: the microseismicity that is often used to image the fracture growth. These weak microseismic events have magnitudes less than zero, and are often challenging to even detect on surface let alone be felt. However, concern is rising associated with hazards associated with…

A low-frequency downhole sparker for borehole seismic applications

Werner M. Heigl, Robert P. Radtke, Robert H. Stokes, David A. Glowka

We report on the development of a downhole sparker source that is able to generate acoustic signals with peak frequencies between 2 and 1000 Hz. The sparker can be configured such that the energy of the produced acoustic signals lies within a spectral band that is suitable for transmission lengths…

Evolution of marine acquisition technology after wide azimuth

Nick Moldoveanu

Seismic exploration in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico was based for many years on the 3D acquisition method and, as a result, significant oil discoveries were made and most of the plays were found below salt or in intrasalt-body basins. The quality of the seismic data acquired in deep-water subsalt…

Introduction to the special section on ‘Seismic Attributes’

Satinder Chopra

Seismic Rock Physics of Bright Amplitude Oil Sands – A Case Study

Niranjan C. Nanda and Anil K. Wason

Two bright amplitude seismic anomalies, on drilling, tested normal grade oil. However, the association of oil with bright amplitudes in the area, where such seismic signatures are known to be habitually associated with gas, was intriguing and provoked a study of seismic rock physics for the two oil sands.

Geologic controls on seismic amplitudes

Jarrod Dunne

Seismic amplitudes (and AVO) can be used to derisk an exploration prospect; to characterise a reservoir; or to enhance production. By now, seismic amplitude interpretation should be regarded as a mature science, yet examples of its application with demonstrable business impact are rare. All too often, and usually with 20/20…

Some current workflows in shale gas reservoir characterization

Satinder Chopra, Ritesh K. Sharma and Kurt J. Marfurt

With the emergence of the shale gas resources as an important energy source, the characterization of mudrocks has gained significance. To be a good resource, mudrocks need to contain sufficient organic content and respond effectively to hydraulic fracturing. Variations in total organic carbon, as well as brittleness which is a…

Acquisition modeling: expect the unexpected

Carl Regone

A seismic acquisition method that is successful in one area sometimes fails in another, and attempts to fix the problems in processing do not always work. The success in recent years with alternative acquisition schemes has shown the need for ongoing experimentation in acquisition design. However, in 3D seismology, the…

Quantitative Seismic Interpretation

Brian Russell

When I was first asked by John Fernando to be the RECORDER special editor for the theme: Seismic Inversion / Time-lapse / Rock Physics, my first thought was that I was being asked to put together the “theory of everything” in exploration seismology. Come on, John, what topics have you…