Articles
The Future of Interpretation Software
Doug Paul
The Canadian oil and gas industry has changed significantly over the last ten years. Soaring hydrocarbon prices combined with the emergence of trusts and small exploration companies have changed the landscape of the energy sector. As the petroleum industry becomes even more competitive, a premium is placed on the explorationist…
Preliminary Seismic Interpretation and Maps for the Paleogene-Neogene (Tertiary) Succession, Orphan Basin
Renee Burton-Ferguson, Michael Enachescu, Rick Hiscott
The Orphan Basin, located offshore Newfoundland and Labrador, is one of the largest under-explored basins along the eastern Canadian Margin. With large 3D seismic surveys executed in 2004-2005 and a deepwater well planned for 2006, the basin has become the new focus area for hydrocarbon exploration in Atlantic Canada. The…
Time-Frequency Polarization Analysis and Filtering
Rob Pinnegar
Most of the “traditional” methods of polarization analysis and polarization filtering operate entirely in the time domain, or entirely in the frequency (or Fourier) domain. Unfortunately, both approaches have major limitations. Time-domain methods often have difficulty dealing with overlapping events that have different frequencies; and frequency-domain methods can run into…
Curvature attribute applications to 3D surface seismic data
Satinder Chopra and Kurt Marfurt
Identifying subtle faults at or below the limits of seismic resolution and predicting fractures associated with folds and flexures is one of the major objectives of careful seismic interpretation. With the common use of 3D seismic in the late 1980s, 1st derivative based horizon dip magnitude and dip azimuth were…
The effects of interbed multiples and attenuation (Q) on the mapping of conventional and unconventional reservoirs
John Logel
Seismic Attributes have been one of the primary identification/ evaluation methods throughout the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin and stratigraphic column, first on 2D data and now predominantly on 3D seismic. Seismic data have limitations and ambiguities that have been stretched and in some cases blatantly abused. Seismic data were first…
Estimating Intrinsic Layer Anisotropy ηlayer From Surface Seismic
K. Stinson, E. Crase, Wai-kin Chan, S. Levy
The anisotropic parameters (Vnmo , ηeffective) are now routinely and robustly estimated from anisotropic prestack time migration velocity analysis. The availability of these parameters opens the possibility for determination of parameters potentially valuable for interpretation, such as layered intrinsic anisotropic layer ηlayer.
In this work, we demonstrate the value and…
Automatic high-density constrained velocity picking
Emil Blias
Velocity analysis is one of the main steps in seismic processing. A velocity model, beyond its initial purpose to obtain a seismic stack, is used for time and depth imaging, AVO analysis and inversion, pore pressure prediction and so on. In conventional processing, it is a high cost procedure and…
Can hydrocarbon saturation be estimated using density contrast parameter?
Nurul Kabir, Richard Crider, Rosemarie Ramkhelawan and Charlie Baynes
The density contrast parameter may reveal important and crucial information about the presence and saturation of hydrocarbon. In this paper, we demonstrate the relation between density contrast and gas saturation and a methodology for extracting this parameter from seismic data. We used both the linear and nonlinear formulation of the…
Awards for the 2006 CSPG/CSEG/CWLS Joint Convention
Awards for the 2006 CSPG/CSEG/CWLS Joint Convention technical papers.
... An East-Central Alberta Multi-Component Seismic Case History
Dave Monk, Ron Larson and Paul Anderson
How does a large independent oil company leap into technology and methodology that are relatively new to the industry, and certainly new to the company in question? Having never worked with multi-component seismic acquisition and processing, Apache Corp. decided in 2004 that the time was right for the company to…
Practical Interpretation of Multi-Component Seismic Data
Murray Roth
Nine months ago, you finalized design for a new multicomponent seismic survey on your company’s key land asset. Seismic modeling of expected P and mode-converted PS seismic response for your reservoir zone convinced you of the potential value for this survey. While minor fluid and lithology changes translate into minor…
Converted-wave seismology for coal exploration
Natasha Hendrick
Despite the success of multi-component seismology and associated converted-wave (PS-wave) imaging methods in the petroleum industry, there has been relatively little effort devoted to shallow, high-resolution converted-wave imaging in the coal sector. By analogy to petroleum-scale applications, converted-wave seismic imaging in the coal environment offers interesting possibilities for independent validation…
Global implications of Arctic climate processes and feedbacks – GLIMPSE
Martin Stendel
The Arctic exhibits substantial natural variability and climate change simulations suggest that it is a region of the world where climate change as a result of increased greenhouse gas concentrations is likely to be largest. The impacts of this warming, including the melting of sea and inland ice and changes…
Anomalous stacking velocities–critique, analysis, explanations and new insights
Emil Blias
A depth velocity model determination is one of the most important problems in seismic processing and interpretation. A velocity model, beyond its initial purpose to obtain a seismic stack, is used for depth conversion and migration, AVO analysis and inversion, pore pressure prediction and so on. Before a well is…
Low temperatures in the Arctic stratosphere have led to severe ozone loss during the spring of 2005
SCOUT project office
25 April 2005. The chemical balance in the stratosphere has changed significantly due to the presence of PSC clouds, altering the breakdown products from man-made CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons) so that rapid chemical ozone destruction can occur in the presence of sunlight. The cold conditions affected the distribution of nitrogen oxides, allowing…
Reducing reservoir risk using 3D-seismic based stratigraphic and geomorphologic analyses
Henry Posamentier
3D seismic data can play a vital role in hydrocarbon exploration and development especially with regard to mitigating risk associated with presence of reservoir facies. Such data can afford direct imaging of depositional elements, which can then be analyzed by applying seismic stratigraphic and seismic geomorphologic principles to yield predictions…
Velocity determination for pore pressure prediction
Satinder Chopra and Alan Huffman
Knowledge of formation pore pressure is not only essential for safe and cost-effective drilling of wells, but is also critical for assessing exploration risk factors including the migration of formation fluids and seal integrity. Usually, pre-drill estimates of pore pressure are derived from surface seismic data by first estimating seismic…
Stereotomography: Past, present and future
Gilles Lambaré
Stereotomography was proposed seven years ago for estimating velocity macro-models from seismic reflection data. Initially the goal was to keep the advantages of standard travel time tomography but remedying for difficult interpretative travel time picking. Stereotomography relies on the concept of locally coherent events characterized by their local slopes in…
Practical applications of P-wave AVO for unconventional gas Resource Plays
Bill Goodway, John Varsek and Christian Abaco
This article is the second of two parts following part 1 in the March 2006 RECORDER. Part 1 described the potential of conventional isotropic AVO to identify optimum geo-mechanical properties for the successful exploitation of tight gas shale Resource Plays through effective hydraulic fracture stimulation. Based on comparisons to the…
Frontier Next Door: Geology and Hydrocarbon Assessment of Sedimentary Basins Offshore Western Canada
Henry Lyatsky
A new, rich petroleum province is waiting to be explored. The sedimentary basins offshore western Canada are currently off limits to hydrocarbon exploration due to a continuing government moratorium. Yet, political developments at the provincial and federal levels give grounds for optimism that this moratorium may be lifted in the…
