Articles
Earthquakes of the Charlevoix Seismic Zone, Québec
Maurice Lamontagne, Mario Beauchemin, Thierry Toutin
Earthquakes represent a significant natural hazard. Canada is no exception; damaging earthquakes have occurred historically and the seismic hazard is non-negligible in many urban areas. Fortunately, mitigation measures, such as upgrading and enforcing building codes, make structures more resistant to earthquake strong ground motions. The seismic provisions of the National…
Where the Hell is that Well?
Stephen M. Thomas
Mixing of data referenced to NAD83 with data referenced to NAD27 may result in positional errors of up to 250 metres that could result in dry holes. NAD27 has served the oil and gas industry very well for the last 80 years and it is still the survey reference system…
Cretaceous (Brookian) Deep-Water Deposits of the Alaskan North Slope: Evidence from 3D Seismic Data
Henry Posamentier
The Brookian section (Middle Cretaceous) of the north slope of Alaska is characterized by high-relief clinoforms prograding towards the northeast into a deep foreland basin. The paleo-water depth ranges from sea level at the topset beds to approximately 800 m at the basin floor. The shelf-edge staging area, where the…
Visualizing the Future: The Upstream Industry Unleashed by Technology
Tony Wood
The upstream oil and gas industry has long advocated and depended upon advanced technologies as a major contributor to its success. Whether it be 3D seismic processing made possible by fast and reliable high performance computing and storage capabilities or the ubiquity of PCs, servers, PDAs and mobile communication devices.…
Extending the Collaborative Visualization Environment to Remote Operations Centers: Media Fusion, Sensor Networks, Real Time Data and Balanced Infrastructure
Bill Bartling, David Hughes and Dr. Eric Frost
Collaborative Visualization Environments (CVE’s) have been proven to be highly effective over the past 10 years, bringing decision teams together around their data to both save money and enhance results. This has been especially prevalent in the geophysical exploration and interactive drill-path planning work processes. These environments were first introduced…
Sun Technology Advancements Benefit Oil and Gas Exploration
Nick Weston
A streamlined exploration process is paramount to the success of any oil and gas company, and high performance compute infrastructure is the key to speeding up exploration. Fast CPUs, large memory footprints, speedy access to memory, precision graphics and technology to optimize compute resource utilization all contribute to faster compute…
Are You Managing Your IT Solutions or Is IT Still Managing You?
J. Douglas Uffen
Informational technology (IT) in the last couple of decades has considerably changed our lives and how we interact with the world. The IT revolution has forced each of us to learn new skills in the workplace as we attempt to keep abreast of technological innovations. The title of this paper…
SEGY Floating Point Confusion
Dennis Meisinger
Let us be straight with one another. Well, perhaps more to the point, let us be sinusoidal with one another. Communication is key in every industry. The words and images that are being used in this article are an attempt at modeling my thoughts in order to transmit them to…
Application of Multiple Regression and Artificial Neural Network Techniques to Predict Shear Wave Velocity from Wireline Log Data for a Carbonate Reservoir, South-West Iran
H. Eskandari, M.R. Rezaee, and M. Mohammadnia
Estimation of shear wave velocity (Vs) using log data is an important approach in the seismic exploration and characterization of a hydrocarbon reservoir. So far all the available empirical models for Vs prediction are mathematical models that incorporate only one or two petrophysical parameters and they lack the generalization capability.…
Multicomponent seismic applications in coalbed methane development
Sarah E. Trend and Don C. Lawton
Increasing interest and activity in coalbed methane production in Western Canada has led to an urgent need for effective and efficient technologies for coal evaluation. Surface seismic methods are effective in delineating lateral coal zone continuity and areal extent, and for mapping faults, channel-cuts and small-scale structures that may hinder…
The workers industry needs, when and where it needs them
Cheryl Knight
Attracting the right people to the right locations is difficult for the upstream petroleum industry, which will need to find personnel for more than 7,000 new Canadian jobs over the next decade. To ensure the industry has the workers it needs, when and where it needs them, the Petroleum Human…
Demographics and a Changing Marketplace – How do I stay as employed as I want to?
David Nordin
This paper combines the thoughts derived from conversations with somewhere between 1000 and 1500 people with ideas from David Foot and Daniel Stoffman’s book “Boom, Bust and Echo” to provide an explanation of some of the current industry trends and offer some ideas on what may evolve in the next…
Western Canada Natural Gas Supply Update “On the Treadmill”
Caral Crowfoot
There are numerous factors at play in today’s natural gas marketplace that account for the strong market conditions. The current production levels, demand characteristics and transportation availability are all contributing to the sustained high natural gas prices throughout North America. This article will examine the production characteristics in the Western…
Ancient Chinese Drilling
Oliver Kuhn
Through a little research I discovered the existence of a museum dedicated to Sichuan’s ancient brine / salt / gas industry. Called The Salt Museum, it is located in Zigong City, named after two of its famous salt wells, about three hours’ drive south of the provincial capital Chengdu. I…
Exploration Just Isn’t What It Used to Be
Arthur Milne
Notions persist that explorationists in the oilpatch are the heirs-apparent of further advancement in their ranks and that exploration activity is the driving force in the industry. These notions, however, are myths – throwbacks to a simpler era.
... The Meaning of Anomaly
Henry Lyatsky
It began by accident, when I casually asked a class of fourth-year geophysics students to define the term anomaly. The disconcerting, blank silence that ensued was repeated by many subsequent senior classes in the following years, and at various schools. Meanwhile, a client wanted to know about EM anomalies on…
Exploring the Unknown
John Amatt
In Straight to the Top and Beyond, John Amatt, mountain climber and C.E.O. uses the metaphor of adventure – climbing Mount Everest – to articulate an innovative strategy for addressing the challenges of a rapidly-changing world.
... CSEG National Conventions – Past, Present and Future
Oliver Kuhn
The first National Convention of the CSEG was held in April, 1973 against a politically volatile backdrop. The year began with oil prices hovering in the $2.50 per barrel range. An Arab oil embargo triggered by the Arab-Israeli war disrupted oil flows and triggered panic buying; later in the year…
CSEG Convention Historical Posters
Oliver Kuhn
In April of 1973, at the first ever CSEG National Convention, Pete Savage was the first author of a technical paper, “Shallow Marine Hovercraft Operations – Mackenzie Delta”. Now, thirty-one years later at the 2004 National Convention, Pete is first author of several posters, ten to be exact! But these…
