Microseismic Monitoring Applications in Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Ted Urbancic and Katie Jeziorski

…Heavy oil or partially depleted conventional reservoirs typically require some form of stimulation to mobilize the oil. For more than a decade, steam injection programs in heavy oil reservoirs such as Cyclic Steam Stimulation, Huff and Puff, SAGD or some combination thereof have utilized microseismic monitoring to track steam movement…

A New Approach to Pore Pressure Predictions Generation, Expulsion and Retention Trio: Case Histories

Selim Simon Shaker

…A comprehensive framework and fresh perspective to pore pressure prediction methods and algorithms based on the established geological building blocks is presented. Applying the suggested four subsurface zones is the backbone of this pore pressure prediction approach. Determining the boundary of the four subsurface zones utilizing seismic data is crucial…

President’s Message

…Now I know why the job of CSEG president only lasts one year: there are only so many mildly interesting topics one can write about month after month in one’s spare time. I have been on the road for a few weeks, and I have received strongly worded emails and…

Executive Message

…When asked how it is possible that the CSEG has such strong and dedicated members, my response is simply that we are passionate about what we do, and that our passion is infectious. At the 2014 CSPG Honorary Address this past November 17th, I mentioned that when I was younger,…

CAGC Column

…It is time to defend ourselves against the anti (Canadian) Oil Interests. The new President/CEO of CAPP, Tim McMillan, says he wants to mobilize the silent majority of energy consumers to speak on its behalf as the industry looks to counter the environmental groups’ campaigns against major pipeline projects. I…

Volunteer Spotlight

…Monthly Technical Luncheon Committee Every month we form a long line, chat to our co-workers and industry colleagues, hand in our small ticket, sit at a round table, hold a seat for a friend running late, introduce ourselves to the unfamiliar faces at the table, embarrassingly recall that we met…

Science Break: Prions

…Even before I saw the scratchy old movie clips of Papua New Guineans afflicted with kuru shaking spasmodically in the days leading up to their inevitable deaths, I found prions frightening. There is something otherworldly about prions, akin to a horrific sci-fi plague or biblical scourge, and they seem to…

Tracing the Industry

…On the Move... Gulia Popov, after 14 years with Sensor Geophysical, has joined Vecta Oil and Gas, Ltd. in The Woodlands, Texas. Vecta utilizes multicomponent seismic data (3-Component as well as 9-Component) along with conventional P-wave data in their search for oil and gas. Gulia will lead Vecta’s seismic data…

Grapevine

…2014 WiSe Golf Tournament raised $20,000 for Alberta Cancer Foundation: Left to Right: Shelley Adams – General Manager at Fox Hollow Golf Course; Joanne Poloway – Past-Chair WiSe Golf tournament; Jessica Cuerrier – Manager Special Events South, Alberta Cancer Foundation; Trish Mulder – Incoming Chair WiSe Golf tournament; Teresa Davidson…

Doris Ross

An Interview with Doris Ross

…Doris, please tell us about your early education and your work experience. I was raised in Bowness – yes, an actual Calgary native – and went to St. Francis High School (academics, track and basketball – better at academics). I then held 2-3 part time jobs (at the same time),…

2b or not 2b? Interpreting Magnitude Distributions from Microseismic Catalogs

David Eaton

…The Gutenberg-Richter b value, the slope of a logarithmic cumulative magnitude distribution graph, provides an indication of the relative abundance of large-tosmall magnitude events. Numerous studies have demonstrated that earthquake catalogs for seismically active fault systems typically show a long-term b value in the range of 0.75 to 1.25, depending…

Introduction To December Focus: A glimpse into the future of seismic imaging?

Rob Holt

…Slowly, inexorably, prestack depth migration (PSDM) is replacing prestack time migration (PSTM) as our seismic imaging workhorse, just as prestack time migration previously replaced poststack time migration. We saw this first in the Canadian Foothills, where anisotropic PSDM is required to correctly position the images of our hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs beneath…

Resolving small-scale near-seabed velocity anomalies using non-parametric autopicking and hybrid tomography

Juergen Fruehn, Stuart Greenwood, Victoria Valler, Dejan Sekulic

…High resolution tomographic inversion has conventionally been preceded by picking of 2nd and 4th order residual moveout of depth migrated gathers. However, this type of picking assumes that the residual moveout behaviour can adequately be characterized with a parametric fit of a simple curve to the form of moveout exhibited…

Multicomponent PSDM Velocity Model building using OBC Data from the Albacora Field

T. Krishnasamy, L. D’Afonseca, P. Guillaume, O.J. Birkeland, T.M.G. Santiago, C. Guerra, R. Lima

…The Albacora field is located in the Campos Basin offshore Brazil. It contains several reservoirs, mainly sandstones and carbonates. The geology is complicated with salt bodies of various thicknesses. The thickness of these salt bodies can vary from 50 m to 1000 m (Lima et al., 2009). To add to…

Reverse-time depth migration in elastic media

Zaiming Jiang

…The main objective of this paper is to sketch a reverse-time migration workflow. The migration is based on an elastic model of the earth, is driven by elastodynamic equations, and processes mutlicomponent seismic records. It works with shot gathers and is a prestack migration. As a typical depth migration, the…

Least squares migration of converted wave seismic data

Aaron Stanton and Mauricio D. Sacchi

…Least squares migration permits the estimation of subsurface models that honor the recorded primary seismic wavefield. In addition, it permits us to include regularization constraints that reduce sampling and illumination artifacts. Least squares migration utilizing one-way wave equation migration has been mainly restricted to imaging via scalar wave propagation operators.…

How much can I stretch and squeeze?

David Cho and David Nordin

…Well to seismic ties is a fundamental step in seismic interpretation. It relates subsurface measurements obtained at a wellbore measured in depth and seismic data measured in time. A time-depth relationship is typically computed by integrating the slowness function measured at a wellbore. Mis-ties are often present and adjustments to…

Matteo Niccoli

An Interview with Matteo Niccoli

…Q&A: Matteo, tell us how you perceive the application of RGB and HLS color schemes to seismic data. Which color scheme should be used for what kind of data and why? I’ll start with color schemes for sequential data, which include elevation, in time or depth domain, and could include…

Mostafa Naghizadeh (2014)

An Interview with Mostafa Naghizadeh

…Q&A: In your article you mention about Fourier analysis being used just about everywhere in geophysical data analysis encompassing seismic data acquisition, noise elimination, interpolation, time-frequency analysis as well as migration and imaging. Can you think of another mathematical tool that has such a versatile application in geophysics? I think…

Pavlo Cholach

An Interview with Pavlo Cholach

…Q&A: In your article you mention ‘…an aging workforce and a shortage of skilled geophysicists…’ Are we there? Not quite, but we are on that path (arguably trend was slowed down by 2008 economic events among other factors). No doubt industry is vibrant, healthy and presently still fairly well equipped…