Articles

On Calibrating Curvature Data to Fracture Density: Causes

Lee Hunt, Satinder Chopra, Scott Reynolds, and Scott Hadley

Volume curvature attributes have been used to infer fracture density in a variety of seismic data worldwide. Estimating accurate quantitative fracture density values from curvature data is of special importance because curvature belongs to a general class of attributes that infer fractures through causal relationships rather than through direct detection…

The measure of full-wave motion: An overview of multicomponent seismic exploration and its value

Robert R. Stewart

This paper presents a short history – and extended future – of the multicomponent (full-wave/vector/elastic) seismic method. The goal of the method is to more fully generate and record complete vibrations in the earth; then, use these recordings to enhance traditional P-wave arrivals and create complementary shear- and surface-wave pictures.…

Junior Geophysicists Forum

On Tuesday November 3, 2009 approximately 170 geophysicists gathered for the 7th Junior Geophysicist Forum (JGF) at our new venue on the 35th floor of The International Hotel. The new venue was a great change as it provided much more space and allowed people to engage enthusiastically in our Icebreaker…

Reflection seismic data from legacy hydrocarbon exploration of Cenozoic and older basins of the Canadian High Arctic

Tom Brent

This presentation summarizes some historical aspects of industry’s seismic exploration effort in the High Arctic. A range of seismic interpretation issues related to both geology and seismic data quality, as seen on different vintages and in various arctic regions, are discussed. Also highlighted are efforts of the GSC since 1984…

Beauty algorithm, eh? (A perspective on Canadian processing innovation)

Mike Perz

In the grand hierarchy of things quintessentially Canadian, “land seismic processing excellence” may not share the same iconic status as poutine, maple syrup, or the McKenzie Brothers …but in my opinion that’s only because it hasn’t received its due recognition! The following perspective piece provides a walking tour of recent…

Prestack Rank-Reduction-Based Noise Suppression

Stewart Trickett and Lynn Burroughs

Prestack random-noise suppression is an important but inadequately- solved problem in land seismic processing, with the potential to significantly improve AVO analysis and the stacked section. To address this problem, we describe a family of filters that perform matrix-rank reduction on constant-frequency slices. These filters include two existing techniques –…

Inversion Driven Processing

Greg Cameron, Josef Heim and David Cho

Seismic data are increasingly used to estimate rock properties through prestack inversion. However, most seismic data processing routines were developed to produce an optimal migrated stack, with the quality of prestack gathers of secondary importance. This paper examines the requirements of seismic data to be used for prestack inversion and…

Interpreting fractures through 3D seismic discontinuity attributes and their visualization

Satinder Chopra

Fractures can enhance permeability in reservoirs and hence impact the productivity and recovery efficiency from them. Fold and fault geometries, stratal architecture and large-scale depositional elements (e.g. channels, incised valley-fill and turbidite fan complexes) are often difficult to see clearly on vertical and horizontal slices through seismic reflection data. Seismic…

4D Seismic Monitoring of Subsurface Fluid Flow

David Lumley

4D seismic involves repeating 3D seismic surveys in timelapse mode to image changes in subsurface fluid flow over time, whether due to injection or depletion in a hydrocarbon reservoir, injection and storage of CO2 for sequestration projects, or other subsurface processes such as groundwater flow or environmental contaminant remediation. To…

High-performance Vibroseis for high-density land acquisition

John Gibson, Howard Watt, Peter Maxwell and Roger Taylor

The Art of Acquisition

Jason Nelson

What a time to be asked to write an article about seismic acquisition! The prices of oil and gas have dropped off the map while the credit facilities of the world have all but closed their doors keeping capital investment in new projects at a stand still. Seismic being a…

Islands of Time – Microevolution

Linden Achen

Every year the CSPG Honorary Address committee brings a guest speaker to Calgary. The committee attempts to identify topics that are topical and interesting to our members, the geo-science community and the general public. The 2009 CSPG Honorary Address in association with the CSEG and APEGGA will hold the talk…

Using Timelapse Seismic to Monitor the THAI™ Heavy Oil Production Process

Rob Kendall

Toe-to-Heel-Air-Injection (THAI™) is an in-situ combustion process that is used for the recovery of bitumen and heavy oil. It combines a horizontal production well with a vertical air injection well placed at the toe. Compressional and shear velocities for heavy oil are extremely sensitive to temperature. As the oil is…

OETR Association Play Fairway Program: Using geoscience to revitalise interest in exploring Nova Scotia’s Offshore

OETR Association

The OETR (Offshore Energy Technical Research) Association has initiated an industry standard Play Fairway Analysis and Geoscience Data Package program. This program is intended to serve a pivotal role in stimulating industry interest in exploration of Nova Scotia’s offshore petroleum resources by providing explorers with critical information about prospectivity and…

Basin and Petroleum Systems Modeling at the Jeanne d’Arc and Carson Basin offshore Newfoundland, Canada

Friedemann Baur and Hans Wielens, Ralf Littke

Demand for energy is growing rapidly, causing worldwide concerns over security of supply. Petroleum systems modeling in 4 dimensions (space + time) predicts the generation, migration, and quality/quantity of accumulated hydrocarbons, incorporating temperature and pressure calculations through the entire evolution of the basin. A Petroleum Systems Model thus provides the…

Broadband Seismic Array Deployment and Data Analysis in Alberta

Yu Jeffrey Gu, Ahmet Okeler, Sean Contenti, Kenny Kocon, Luyi Shen, Keith Brzak

The availability and fidelity of broadband seismic instruments in recent years have greatly accelerated worldwide research on ground motion and seismic structure. Equipped with instruments that are capable of digitally recording signals across a wide frequency band (0.01-100 Hz), earthquake seismologists no longer need to contend with analogue records, limited…

Making Sense of all that AVO Stuff

Brian Russell

Over the last few years, a multitude of new and different AVO (Amplitude Variations with Offset) and pre-stack inversion techniques have been developed, all of which put a slightly different spin on the way we extract information about the fluids and rock types within our reservoir. For the working interpreter,…

The role of reverse time migration in complex imaging

Denes Vigh, E. William Starr and Jerry Kapoor

In depth imaging, after the Kirchhoff method, wave equation techniques have been used most widely in the industry, especially in subsalt imaging. Traditional wave equation migrations use one-way downward continuation and this is why turning ray is not incorporated into these algorithms. Therefore, in order to image the salt face,…

Application of seismic curvature attribute in the appraisal of the Tishrine-West field, North-East Syria

Nilanjan Ganguly, David Dearborn, Mike Moore, Don Gordon, Mary Horan, and Satinder Chopra

The Tishrine-West field is located in North-East Syria and has been producing since 1978. In 2005, Tanganyika Oil assumed operatorship of this field as a part of its ownership commitment of the Tishrine block. 3D seismic data was acquired in 2006, and subsequent interpretation and attribute analysis, followed by drilling,…

APEGGA Summit Awards® Recognize Engineering and Geoscience Excellence

APEGGA

Calgary – Hundreds of individuals in the engineering and geoscience communities honoured their peers at the 2009 Summit Awards® Gala, Thursday, April 23 at the TELUS Convention Centre. The event, hosted by The Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta (APEGGA), acknowledges outstanding individuals for their accomplishments in…