Grapevine

Student Conference Travel Awards Program at University of Alberta

Five students from the Geophysics Institute won awards in the April competition of the Institute Student Conference Travel Awards Program. Earth Signal Processing Ltd. Travel Awards were won by Luke Copeland, Kathleen Dohan, and Matt Reszka.

Luke attended the 8th International Conference on Ground Penetrating Radar held in Gold Coast, Australia in May where he gave a paper with Martin Sharp entitled Radio-echo sounding determination of polythermal glacier hydrology.

Kathleen traveled to Vancouver in July to the 5th International Symposium on Stratified Flows where she gave a paper with Bruce Sutherland on Excitation of large amplitude internal waves from a turbulent mixing region.

Matt will be travelling to Limerick, Ireland to attend the IUTAM Symposium: Advances in Mathematical Modeling of Atmosphere and Ocean Dynamics. His paper with Gordon Swaters is entitled Baroclinic instability of bottom-dwelling currents in a continuously stratified ocean. Paul Choboter, a second student working with Gordon Swaters, won an Institute for Geophysical research travel Award, and will also be travelling to the Limerick meeting to present a joint paper with Gordon entitled Modeling the dynamics of abyssal equator-crossing currents.

Flora Paganelli won a Canadian Hunter Exploration Ltd. Travel Award to travel to the ERS-ENVISAT Symposium to be held in Gothenburg, Sweden in October. She will be giving two papers there, one with Benoit Rivard entitled Reflectance and Gamma-ray spectroscopy of carbonate rocks, Moose Mountain, Alberta, Canada; and the second with Benoit Rivard and S. Johnston of the School of Earth and Ocean Sciences, University of Victoria, entitled The Doornberg Shear Zone from Radarsai and Landsat 7 TM, northeastern Namaqua metamorphic belt, South Africa.

lAGC/IPAA Conference on "Spec" Seismic Data Issues

The International Association of Geophysical Contractors (IAGC) and Independent Petroleum Association of America (lPAA) will hold the second in a series of day-long conferences on nonexclusive (speculative or "spec") geophysical data in Houston, Texas on Tuesday, October 31st.

The conference is especially appropriate and beneficial for independent oil company people -owners, exploration managers, geologists, geophysicists, landmen, attorneys and others -who wish to learn more about how to gain the greatest benefit from this low-cost but powerful oil and gas finding tool.

The dramatic growth of the "spec" data business has greatly enhanced wildcat drilling success rates and allowed large numbers of oil companies affordable access to 3-D seismic technology, which is changing dramatically due to sweeping changes created by the internet.

More information on the conference, including registration material, is available from the IAGC at iagc@wt.net or by calling (713) 957-8080.

I/O Launches my.i-o.com as Part of E-Business Portfolio

I/O has successfully launched a B2B specialized website, my.i-o.com. Through my.i-o.com, customers have access to a searchable help desk, technical documentation, on-line field service requests, and various other features delivered through web-based technologies. Real-time repair status and online manuals will be available shortly.

Customers access this specialized website via their own Intranet, thus helping to maintain a secure environment for the transfer of client/ vendor information. The site was developed to provide customers with the information specific to the subscriber at the crew level, on demand. The goal is a more efficient resolution of customer issues and increased communication with the crews resulting in improved acquisition economics. For more information about subscribing to my.i-o.com, email Kim_Fairweather@i-o.com.

Gemcom Achieves Record Revenues in Fiscal 2000

Gemcom Software International Inc., a leading supplier of e-business solutions to the earth resources industry, reported its annual financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2000. Gemcom's Fiscal 2000 Annual report is available on-line at www.gemcomsoftware.com.

The company achieved a number of important milestones during the year, including the completion of the first version of its new enterprise-level system GEMS, and the installation of this system at DeBeers' Venetia mine. During the year DeBeers' also approved financing for the development of Version 2ofGEMS,which will be available commercially before the end of fiscal 2001. Gemcom also completed an important acquisition in 2000 when it purchased its South African agent last December. The company anticipates receiving a full 25% of next year's revenues from this new office.

Vectorseis Mems Sensor, Performance Improvement

Since the first public showing of the pre-commercial VectorSeis Sensor Module at the 1999 SEG in Houston, a number of client field tests have been undertaken to demonstrate the potential of the patented new technology, employing up to 700 VectorSeis stations.

Results from these tests have drawn industry attention and despite some known limitations of these early units, strong interest continues and improved performance is eagerly awaited. Reliable, consistent performance has been convincingly demonstrated in the field environment, even in freezing conditions. The digital communication protocol between the sensor and the recording system eliminates in-field component connection errors that could prove costly.

Development efforts have continued in parallel with the field test program and already second generation VectorSeis sensors are demonstrating a 20dB dynamic range improvement, now within the limits of conventional recording systems. Improvements have involved design modifications to the silicon sensor die, ceramic package, and the sensors controlling ASIC.

The program of focused development and testing continues with a large scale, second generation VSM production run forecast for the beginning of 2001. The ultimate performance goals for the VectorSeis digital sensor technology are even more stringent and development will be maintained to complete the task. Meanwhile a parallel effort is the design of the third generation VectorSeis sensor package for commercial release, offering a significantly more compact profile.

Petronas to Host ASCOPE 2001

The 7th ASCOPE Conference and Exhibition 2001 will take place November 5-7, 2001, at the Putra World Trade Centre, Kuala Lumpur's most modern complex of exhibition halls and conference facilities.

ASCOPE 2001 will support the currently rebounding Asian economy which after experiencing a currency crisis and an economic slowdown in the last three years is now finally back on track with all countries in the region projecting good Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rates for 2000.

Held every four years, ASCOPE is now geared to become the largest Oil & Gas conference and exhibition in ASEAN. The ASCOPE 2001 Exhibition is an ideal platform for all major oil and gas companies to display and market their equipment and technology in all related sectors of the industry. The exhibition is set to attract more than 500 companies from all leading oil producing companies in the world.

Held alongside the exhibition is the 7th ASCOPE Conference with its theme "Forging Towards a New Order in the Oil and Gas Industry". This vital business forum will allow members of ASCOPE to meet and interact with oil and gas company executives. It is expected to attract around 1500 senior management personnel and decision-making delegates from all major oil and gas companies worldwide.

Multi-Component 3D Seismic Survey Design/Project Management with GMG Software

To establish standards and practices for the preparation and management of multicomponent data, Green Mountain Geophysics has extended the data structure and interface of MESA. The design and QC capacity of MESA will handle survey designs that have mixed sources, mixed receiver types and multiple components.

Advancement in the underlying foundation of acquisition design applications allows other GMG programs such as MESA GRIP (3D subsurface modeling for survey design) and Alpine (acquisition management and reporting) to deal with the same types of advanced designs, including downhole geometries. MESA GRIP provides a more insightful, model-based analysis of these complex designs, including converted wave ray tracing. The integrity of these complex seismic geometries is maintained as the data is moved from MESA to the I/O SYSTEM 2000 and on to Alpine.

Direct data links between MESA, Alpine, and the SYSTEM 2000 improve crew productivity and reduce the number of geometry errors during acquisition. In the long run, fewer geometry errors will improve processing productivity as well.

Terra Seis International Inc. Continues to Achieve Success on World Stage

Terra Seis International Inc. has completed an extensive 3D project in Trinidad. This technically challenging program, requiring 3200 channels and 500 personnel, was completed with great success, ahead of schedule and under budget.

With the effective completion of Terra Seis' 1999 programs in Africa, Terra Seis International continues to show the industry that they are positioned and ready to meet the increasing demands of the world market.