Articles
Recent Advances in Application of AVO to Carbonate Reservoirs
Yongyi Li, Bill Goodway and Jonathan Downton
Carbonates make up about half of the sedimentary rock in the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB), ranging from Cambrian to early Jurassic in geologic age, in which large oil and gas reserves exist in the Devonian and Early Carboniferous formations. Middle and Upper Devonian carbonate rocks alone have a known…
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD): A New Oil Production Technology for Heavy Oil and Bitumens
T.N. Nasr
The capacity of world heavy oil and oil sands has been estimated to be as much as that of the world’s total discovered light and medium crude oils in place. Over 90% of the world’s heavy oil and oil sands are deposited in Canada and Venezuela. Up to 90% of…
The Athabasca Oil Sands Project
Neil Camarta
When Shell Canada produces its first barrel of synthetic crude from the Oil Sands sometime next year, it will join a very small group of companies. If a ‘club’ for synthetic crude producers existed, Shell’s efforts would have earned its membership by virtue of decades of work, billions of dollars,…
Focusing Oil and Gas Exploration in Eastern Yemen by Using Satellite Images and Elevation Data along
Richard Harris, Mark Cooper, Ian Shook
Landsat images and a digital elevation model covering the central and southern portions of the Masilah Basin in the Republic of Yemen have been used to enhance the mapping of poorly imaged structural features. An absence of recent post-rift sediments within the study area allowed Mesozoic and Cenozoic extensional features…
Tectonic Evolution of the San Jacinto Fold Belt, NW Colombia
Miryam Caro and Deborah Spratt
The San Jacinto Fold Belt is interpreted to be an inverted rift or graben on the northwestern continental margin of South America. Tectonic evolution of the San Jacinto Fold Belt from Cretaceous to present is complex and related to the development of the Caribbean Plate and its interaction with the…
Geologic and Engineering Aspects of Naturally Fractured Reservoirs
Roberto Aguilera
I am convinced significant volumes of hydrocarbons reside in naturally fractured reservoirs – particularly in fields abandoned because of improper testing and evaluation or because the wells did not intersect the fractures.1 Rules of thumb and naturally fractured reservoirs do not mix well. What appears to work in one might…
Running Out of Gas? The need for more and better exploration
Dave Russum
... Modern Depth Migration Methods: Promise and Challenges for Canadian Basins
Samual H. Gray and James Sun
... Aeromagnetic Anomalies from the South-Central Alberta Foothills
Christian I. Abaco and Don C. Lawton
High-resolution aeromagnetic (HRAM) data from the south-central Alberta Foothills were processed to enhance near-surface sources of magnetic anomalies and suppress regional gradients. The processed HRAM anomalies are not related to the topography and are induced by the magnetic properties of the rock units underlying the survey area. Siliciclastic strata dominate…
Resistivity and Seismic Visualization Techniques to Plot Subsurface Environmental Geology
Alan Coode, Grant Nimeck, Mike Pesowski, Ron Larson, Andrew Karvonen and Moir D. Haug
Initial drilling and Time Domain Electro-Magnetic (TDEM) geophysical surveying (Geonics EM-47) indicated the presence of a sandy buried channel below till in Western Canada. Additional geophysical surveys used both resistivity measurements and seismic visualization techniques to explore the near surface lithology. The resistivity surveys (Komex International Ltd.) gave definitive images…
Indiana Jones and the Seismic Anomaly: The Potential of Seismic Methods in Archaeology
David C. Henley
The painstaking and time-consuming nature of archaeological excavation makes it important to locate potential targets as accurately as possible before digging. Field archaeologists mostly rely on their experience, knowledge and intuition to stake out the most fruitful excavation locations at a site, unless, like Indiana Jones, they have a cryptic…
An Immigrant’s Experience In Job Hunting
Ivaylo Nedev
It is well-known that an overwhelming number of new immigrants choose the region of the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) as their new home. There are many reasons for this but the main ones are the popularity of the area and the presence of relatives and friends. I am one of…
Intrigue, Mystery and Geophysics… Dead Sea Archaeology, 2001
Paul Bauman, Richard Freund, Rami Arav, John Shroder, Jr., Phil Reeder and Harry Jol
For seven weeks over the past three summers, archaeogeophysical exploration was carried out in caves and other ancient sites of occupation along the Syrian African Rift Valley from the Dead Sea northward to the confluence of the Sea of Galilee and the Jordan River. State of the art geophysical exploration…
Geophysics On Vancouver Island – An Outreach Article
Melvyn E. Best
When first asked to write an article about geophysical activity on Vancouver Island for the Recorder, I was hesitant. The small group of geophysicists have a diverse range of interests, thus making a complete portrayal of their activities difficult. On reflection, though, such an article would provide RECORDER readers with…
“Mix Seismic with Water (Carefully) to Obtain Results” or Shooting Rivers & Lakes, Part One (Shooting Rivers)
Perry Kotkas & John Ropchan
Walk over to your wall map and determine how much land in Alberta is under water, or dissected by rivers. If you knew your company could obtain superior seismic data in a “virgin” area at a reasonable cost, but, it would take planning, expertise, and real environmental stewardship, would you…
Seismic Instruments – What’s New? … And What’s True?
Norman M. Cooper
“We have so much dynamic range now that …” – and then you fill in the blanks. This is perhaps one of the most frequently mis-used phrases in our industry today. This prelude has been used to justify many excuses for poor acquisition practices from the grouping of analog geophones… The Changing Face of the Land Seismic Crew and the Advent of Digital Multicomponent Sensors
Robert Kendall
In the last twenty years land seismic acquisition has changed in many ways. The standard seismic crew twenty years ago was likely to be a 96-channel, 16 bit analogue cable system. Digitizing was done in the recorder and digital data written to tape. Field filters and gain settings were switched…
Global Warming / Climate Change and Variations in Solar Activity: Past, Present and Future?
Ken Allen
Since the author’s first article on this subject, titled “Global Warming and the Sun”, was published in the CSEG Recorder in January 2000, the evidence that solar variations and other natural forces may in fact be the primary drivers of recent global warming have continued to grow. A briefer version…
True Depth Conversion: More Than a Pretty Picture
Edward L. Etris, Nick J. Crabtree and Jan Dewar
A good seismic image is not enough for an exploration or field development interpretation. Good well ties and reliable depth conversion are also required. The authors have found that geologists and geophysicists tend to approach the depth conversion process quite differently. The geologist says, “If I don’t have wells, how…
Seismic Imaging: Prestack
John C. Bancroft
The kinematics of prestack data consider an arbitrary offset between the source and receiver. The added dimension of the source-receiver offset defines a prestack volume where the location of source gathers, constant offset sections, common midpoint gathers, etc. are identified. Reflection energy from horizontal reflectors, dipping reflectors, or scatterpoints can…
