Articles
Building the Perfect Storm
Douglas Iverson
To be truly effective, a seismic operation must look beyond the initial technical parameters of subsurface imaging. With careful consideration, operational efficiencies, cost management and the technical requirements can be aligned effectively without sacrificing data quality. In short, the relationship between the technical, economical, operational, and program timing must be…
Calibration of Geopressure Predictions using the Normal Compaction Trend: Perception and Pitfall
Selim Shaker
The prediction of pore pressure (PP) is primarily established based on the divergence of the petrophysical measurements from the normal compaction trend. In the transition zone between the hydrostatically pressured and geopressured systems, formation water is expelled gradually from sediments due to pressure gradient drop from deeper to shallower depth.…
Preparing for the Future in Geophysics
Alan Cohen
This talk was prepared for the fall 2005 CSEG DoodleTrain in Calgary, Canada as the invited lunchtime presentation . Unfortunately, in late August 2005 I evacuated New Orleans due to hurricane Katrina and then spent several months trying to recover; therefore, the talk was never given. Fortunately, I had a…
The old and the new in seismic inversion
Brian Russell and Dan Hampson
Seismic inversion is a technique that has been in use by geophysicists for over forty years. Early inversion techniques transformed the seismic data into Pimpedance (the product of density and P-wave velocity), from which we were able to make predictions about lithology and porosity. However, these predictions were somewhat ambiguous…
Geophysics and the Drilling Location. Where is it, and how big is it?
Jim Ross
So moving forward in time, where are we? The data has been shot (hopefully 3D) and has been delivered to the processing shop to begin the transformation into useable data for interpretation and while this isn’t really what we are here to talk about, it nonetheless plays a crucial role…
2006 Election of Officers Candidates
Summary of 2006 CSEG Election Candidates.
... Geophysics on the roof of the world
Martyn Unsworth
For many people the name Tibet is associated with a mysterious and distant land inhabited by monks, nomads and yaks. Made popular by recent films, and with a unique culture, this perception of Tibet is certainly true. However, Tibet is also a natural laboratory where scientists can study what happens…
Outreach at the Calgary Career Show, October 2006
Where are the geophysicists of the future to be found? Who will replace us as we retire? How do we inform people about our exciting industry and entice them to consider a career in it? The Outreach committee is trying to spread the word by visiting high schools and participating…
An HS&E Perspective on the Changing Technologies in Seismic Acquisition
Kevin Pelletier and Bob Heath
The introduction of new, light weight, cable-free seismic systems may inadvertently be increasing the risk of litigation liability for users of existing cable-based seismic systems. The latest cable-free systems offer considerable advantages in terms of Health and Safety, as well as reduced environmental impact, and may, by virtue of their…
SeisCap Duo. Seismic Record Encapsulation.
Eric Keyser
Ever since the 1960’s seismic data has been stored on magnetic tape. During the 1990’s there was recognition that tape would not last forever and data needed to be preserved in a manner that was independent of physical media. In some cases the original physical media devices that the data…
Multicomponent Case Study: One Company’s Experience in Eastern Alberta
Paul Anderson and Ron Larson
In 2004, Apache embarked on an investigation of multicomponent technology. One of the projects undertaken was a target of upper-Mannville channel sands, specifically the Rex member. Some of this work was presented by Monk et al. in the May 2006 RECORDER, however additional efforts have been put into the analysis…
My take on the interaction of Engineers and Geophysicists
Brad Culver
You know, I have always enjoyed my career path. One of my simplest pleasures has been derived from the fact that few individuals know what we geophysicists do, even fewer know how to pronounce it. That has always made my job mysterious. I get called a geologist most of the…
Seismic Skeletonization: A Useful Tool for Geophysical Data Analysis
K. Vasudevan, F. A. Cook, and D. W. Eaton
Automated event picking of reflection seismic and georadar data allows an interpreter to analyse coherent events using a variety of statistical tools. The success of such tools in exploration is well-documented (Taner et al., 1979; Robertson and Fisher, 1988; Barnes, 1993; Chen and Sidney, 1997; Marfurt et al., 1998; Schmitt,…
Numerical Solutions of Seismic Scattering in Heterogeneous Media
Jun-Wei Huang, Thomas Bohlen and Bernd Milkereit
Analytical solutions of seismic wave propagation are available in restricted cases such as homogenous or layered homogenous models, or targets with regular shape or smooth property variations. As seismologists try to quantify the Earth with high resolution, these models are oversimplified and only valid for particular purposes. Heterogeneities commonly exist…
White Rose seismic with well data constraints—less art and more science: A case history
Ayiaz Kaderali
The White Rose Oil Field is located offshore in the Jeanne d’Arc Basin, 350km East of St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Husky is the operator with a 72.5 percent working interest in the field. The field was discovered in 1984, and consists of both oil and gas pools. The…
New seismic and other geophysical equipment at the University of Calgary
Don Lawton and Malcolm Bertram
The Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Calgary has recently purchased leading-edge seismic and other geophysical equipment for research programs and for the education and training of undergraduate and graduate students. Purchase of this equipment was made possible through a grant of $1.2 million from the Provincial…
Geophysical Inversion Workshop and Summer School: A Big Success
Peter Cary
The 2nd Geophysical Inversion Workshop and Seismic Imaging Summer School took place in August this past summer on the University of Calgary campus. This extremely successful meeting was enjoyed by about 80 attendees at the workshop and about 50 registrants in the summer school. Dr. Gary Margrave, the main organizer…
Non-first-break technology to remove effects of shallow velocity anomalies
Emil Blias
As was analytically shown in the first paper (Blias, 2006a) shallow velocity anomalies can cause large lateral variations in stacking velocities. Non-removed shallow velocity anomalies (SVAs) can reduce the quality of the post-stack image and create time distortions in seismic horizons. A conventional approach to deal with SVAs utilizes first…
An example of a fully integrated Reservoir Characterization project utilizing well data, fluid substitutions, elastic modeling, production history, seismic and AVO attributes
Brian Schulte
AVO has played a significant role in exploration over the last 20 years. However, the use of amplitudes as a direct hydrocarbon indicator is still not as reliable as desired. On the other hand experience demonstrates some of the issues needed to be addressed exist within the seismic data itself.
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