Deriving High Quality Horizontal Positioning of Seismic Receivers Directly from GPS Receivers Embedded in Wireless Seismic Receiver Nodes

Allan R Châtenay and Paul Thacker

…Our work demonstrates that positional data derived from the GPS receivers embedded in wireless seismic receiver nodes can achieve horizontal positioning quality which complies with the minimum standard required for most land-based seismic data acquisition operations. While the original purpose of the GPS receivers within seismic receiver nodes was to…

Technology Collaboration is the Key Element in Frontier Seismic Exploration

Jason Criss

…Seismic exploration has long been done in remote, out of the way regions of the globe. However, a definition for frontier area is not a region which is necessarily remote but one that has had limited exploration. This can mean anything from distant jungles to Arctic forests, but a common…

Field Testing Justifying Significant Changes in 3D Design Parameters to Improve Seismic Data and Decrease Costs

Ann O’Byrne, Greg MacNeil and Andrew Kura

…Challenging the status quo to optimize 3D acquisition has been a focus of the Foster Creek team since late 2014 when Cenovus initiated a pilot project to decrease the cost of acquiring 3D seismic data. The challenge was to decrease acquisition costs while maintaining data quality and safety standards. Over…

It’s Time to Wake Up!

Doug Pruden

…I want to proclaim to the Canadian oil industry that the pity party is now officially over and it is time to get up and get back to work. The chart in Figure 1 is taken from the www.macrotrends.net/1369/crude-oil-price-history-chart website and shows the inflation adjusted price of crude oil for…

How Geophysics Can Generate and Demonstrate More Value During the Development of Mature Unconventional Resource Plays: A Personal Opinion

Rob Holt

…The evolution of the North American “unconventionals revolution” The discovery in the early 1990s by George Mitchell and his team at Mitchell Energy of how to profitably exploit the Barnett Shale play fuelled the North American unconventionals revolution, aided by (1) oil and gas price increases; (2) improvements in drilling…

President’s Message

…Welcome back from the CSEG summer break. I hope you had a safe and memorable summer and you are ready for what the CSEG has in store for its members. Did you get some time to read something interesting this summer? I’ve got a couple of books in progress and…

Chief Editor’s Message

…I was honoured to be asked to take over the reins of the RECORDER from Penny Colton this summer. The RECORDER is an excellent publication that connects the Canadian geophysical community like no other. My first task as the incoming Chief Editor is to thank Penny very much for her…

CAGC Column

…2016 marks the third year of the downturn for seismic. As our industry struggles to survive so does the Association. We are pleased we still have support for both our Alberta Geophysical Seminar and our premier event Seismic in Motion (SIM). Both will be held in September. In Alberta we…

Science Break: CRISPR Genome Editing

…TCRISPR is a simple acronym to remember, but it refers to a very complex technology that promises to revolutionize gene editing and splicing. The letters stand for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats”. The palindromic repeats are short repeated DNA sequences found in some bacteria that geneticists have been aware…

Presidents of Professional Societies – Part 1

An Interview with Presidents of Professional Societies - Part 1

…Let us begin by asking you about your educational background and your work experience. JB: I have Bachelor’s degrees in physics and engineering physics from the University of Kansas, but growing up in Colorado nurtured a strong interest in geology. Upon completion of my undergraduate education, I was looking for…

Tracing the Industry

…Mark Watson joins Absolute Imaging as VP Sales and Corporate Strategy. In June, Absolute Imaging welcomed Mark Watson as Vice President of Sales and Corporate Strategy. Mark complements Absolute’s sales team and will assist in building its client base and brand, both domestically and internationally. Mark can be reached directly…

Grapevine

…CSPG/CSEG/CAPL Roadrace! The annual 10km/5km road race and fun run will be held on September 23rd at 6pm, starting from Eau Claire. Registration is limited to 200, so register early! Go to the CSEG website for more information: cseg.ca/social/road-race-fun-run. 8th Annual CSEG T-Wave Golf Tournament The 8th Annual CSEG T-Wave…

Improving Seismic Data While Decreasing Costs

Ann O’Byrne

…In the latter half of 2013 Cenovus initiated a pilot to decrease the cost of acquiring 3D seismic data while maintaining data quality and safety standards. Monitor 4D’s frequently made use of Vibroseis as an infill. Earlier testing indicated that Vibroseis acquisition could replace future baseline surveys; however investigation and…

Introduction to June Focus: DAS/Borehole Geophysics

Paul Webster

…Welcome to this special edition of the RECORDER with a focus on Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) and borehole geophysics. There are four papers on DAS, in particular with application to Vertical Seismic Profiles (VSPs) and one on DAS for microseismic. Since DAS was first used as a downhole optic sensing…

The use of fiber-optic sensing to efficiently acquire vertical seismic profiles

Tim Dean, Theo Cuny, and Arthur Hartog

…Conventional vertical seismic profiles (VSPs) are recorded by lowering receivers, usually geophones but increasingly accelerometers, contained within shuttles down a well where they are anchored to the borehole wall using clamps or bowsprings. A seismic source (often located adjacent to the well-head, i.e. at zero-offset) is then activated and data…

Comparing DAS and Geophone Zero-Offset VSP Data Sets Side-By-Side

Mark E. Willis, Cemal Erdemir, Andreas Ellmauthaler, Oscar Barrios, David Barfoot

…Zero-offset vertical seismic profile (VSP) data were acquired by both retrievable (wireline) geophones and distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) on cemented-in fiber-optic cable. Side-by-side comparisons of these data sets are shown at several steps in the processing flow to help understand the advantages of each of these data types. Good data…

Simultaneous Acquisition of Distributed Acoustic Sensing VSP with Multi-mode and Single-mode Fiber-optic Cables and 3C-Geophones at the Aquistore CO₂ Storage Site

D. E. Miller, T.M. Daley, D. White, B.M. Freifeld, M. Robertson, J. Cocker, M. Craven

…A dynamite 3D VSP survey, a Vibrator 2D VSP survey and related calibration surveys at the Aquistore CO2 storage site in Saskatchewan served as a technology test for distributed acoustic sensing (DAS). DAS data was acquired as a vertical seismic profile (VSP) on two codeployed fibers, one single-mode (SM) and…

Field trials of distributed acoustic sensing for reservoir delineation with VSP

Ge Zhan, Qingsong Li, Jay Nahm, Jan Kommedal and Jon Konkler

…A most recent fiber-optic based technology that has been adopted in VSP acquisition is distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), where the fiber-optic cable in the well is the sensor and a typical seismic source is shooting on the surface into the reservoir formation. This technology enables a fiber-optic cable to be…

DAS Microseismic

Paul Webster, Mathieu Molenaar and Colin Perkins

…Fiber-Optic Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) applied to microseismic has the potential to significantly change the cost structure and quality of microseismic data acquisition. When a fiber-optic cable is deployed down-hole, it can be used for many purposes: hydraulic fracture monitoring, flow monitoring, VSPs and microseismic. Economies of scale are achieved…

Peter Tertzakian

An Interview with Peter Tertzakian

…Peter, let’s begin by asking you about your educational qualifications and work experience. I have degrees in geophysics and economics, and an MBA. I have worked in the oil and gas industry as a geophysicist, and in the finance industry as an equity analyst. For the last 15 years I…