Tracing the Industry

…On the Move... Divestco Welcomes Craig Joyce to the Sales Team We are pleased to announce that in October Craig Joyce joined our sales team in the role of Sales Executive for the Software and Data Division. Craig brings several years of sales experience in the Oil & Gas industry,…

Science Break: Ocean Currents

…Besides the Gulf Stream, ocean currents are likely out-of-sight, out-of-mind for most people. I don’t even recall ocean currents being part of the geophysics undergrad curriculum, even though they should definitely fall under physics of the earth, with temperature and density physics explaining their dynamics. The following article is a…

Volunteer Spotlight

…CSEG Ski Spree Committee You’re heading west, the excited chatter in the back-seat talks only of the recent snow fall, you all look forward to the weekend where you will ski, chat and relax in Fairmont with CSEG colleagues and their families. You will make new contacts and you know…

Grapevine

…Petrel Robertson Available for Mexico Opportunities Evaluations Petrel Robertson recently formed a geotechnical/ engineering team to evaluate oil and gas opportunities in Mexico and for bid round evaluations. We have been granted approval for business by CNH via an Ares A application. The intent of the newly formed team is…

Value Thinking from the Classical to the Hyper-Modern

Lee Hunt

…The modern geoscientist has access to an unrivaled depth of geoscientific knowledge. There seems to be a technique for everything, and an available level of detail to fit any issue. More articles, more ideas, more complex formulae, more everything. Famed geoscientists argue certain technical minutiae the way old theists would…

Introduction To January Focus: Geoscience Innovations – Best of GeoConvention 2015

Rob McGrory

…Our joint annual convention has been the principal technical conference for Canadian earth scientists principally working in the petroleum industry. The purpose is to communicate, and stay informed about the latest developments in our profession, and network with fellow professionals. The three societies involved in GeoConvention are the Canadian Well…

Gravity Monitoring of 4D Fluid Migration in SAGD Reservoirs – Forward Modelling

E. Judith Elliott and Alexander Braun

…The feasibility of time-lapse gravity and gravity gradient monitoring for Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) Reservoirs is investigated. Two major obstacles have prevented the use of time-lapse gravimetry on small scale reservoirs, namely i) the need for sub-μGal sensitivity, and ii) the high noise levels in the vicinity of the…

Using the Scattering Transform to Predict Stratigraphic Units from Well Logs

Ben Bougher and Felix J. Herrmann

…Applications of machine learning (ML) have become ubiquitous across many domains in both academia and industry. Voice and facial recognition are now robust features in smart phones and cameras, while text learning and behaviour tracking on the internet have created a commodity market for data. Self-driving cars and spatially aware…

Reading Between the Lines II: A NEBC Shale Gas Quantitative Interpretation Case Study Incorporating Multi-Component Data

Laurie Weston Bellman, Jennifer Leslie-Panek, Pamela Reid and Eric von Lunen

…The objective of this case study (Weston Bellman et al., 2015a) was to enhance and improve the prediction of facies and geomechanical properties of a shale reservoir interval. The conditioning, analysis and blending of the converted-wave (PS) data into the more conventional quantitative interpretation (QI) will be described to illustrate…

Cost-Effective Seismic Exclusion Zone Mitigation Using Optimal Station Prediction (OSP) Method

Andrea Crook

…For large seismic exclusion zones affecting numerous source and/or receiver stations, should all the stations within the exclusion be skidded or offset around the edges of the exclusion, or should select stations that provide the most geophysical and economic value be used instead? How do we quantify station value? Is…

Dimitri Bevc

An Interview with Dimitri Bevc

…Dimitri, please tell us about your educational qualifications and your work experience. I did my undergrad in geophysics at U.C. Berkeley, and after working for a few years, returned to Berkeley for an M.Sc. in engineering geoscience. While in grad school at Berkeley, I took one of Jon Claerbout’s classes…

President’s Message

…Welcome to 2016. I challenge you to make a change this year – whether you are a new graduate finding your foothold, a long-standing member opting for retirement or somewhere in the middle clinging on until the ride is over, there is something that you can do today to make…

Executive Message

…The Value of the Recorder and the CSEG Website It is hard to be optimistic given the current situation. We’ve seen our friends and colleagues laid-off during this drastic fall in oil prices. This has led to a drop in our membership and many of the traditional advertisers and sponsors…

CAGC Column

…Here we go. Change is coming to both Alberta and to Canada. Personally I do not see how improving our perception in the world with relation to climate change will help us get access to markets – i.e. pipelines. Keystone nixed by Obama; Northern Gateway running up against an “official”…

Committee Highlight

…CSEG Foundation Outreach Program The Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysics Foundation Outreach Program has been reaching out to CSEG members, the larger geoscience community and the general public in some form for the past 14 years. Founded in 2001, the program has grown from its humble beginnings as a vessel…

Science Break: The Great Lakes

…Quaternary geology is fascinating, especially the late Pleistocene and into the Holocene (11,700 years ago to present) because it’s so recent, dynamic and all around us. In my article on the Spokane Flood (Kuhn, 2008), I alluded to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, humans had witnessed this catastrophic event.…

Volunteer Spotlight

…CSEG Doodlespiel In 1973, the inaugural CSEG Doodlespiel took place in Banff. The $60 bonspiel fee included curling costs, prizes, accommodation, meals, a cocktail party and banquet. There were seven committee members and it is recorded that the event was undersubscribed. Since then, the event has been capped at 64…

Working Visually with the Wavefield

Dr. Steven Lynch

…Seismic begins life as an analog acoustic wavefield. We record it digitally and we process it digitally but it is, in its natural state, continuous in both time and space. Despite the venerable familiarity of conventional seismic displays, seismic does not naturally segregate into individual (wiggle) traces and it does…

Intro to December Focus: Land Seismic in Complex Basins

Rob Kendall

…Welcome to this special issue of the RECORDER, with a focus on land seismic in complex basins which presents three papers on land acquisition, new recording equipment, acquisition planning, and resulting improvements in imaging and interpretation. In the first focus article (Cableless Seismic Acquisition), Kendall discusses the various advantages and…

Cableless Seismic Acquisition

Rob Kendall

…Cableless, wireless or cable-free (we will use the term cableless in this discussion) seismic recording systems do not transfer data back to a central recording system and they do not transfer power to multiple stations through cables. The majority of them are autonomous with the data being recorded on flash…