Introduction to November’s Focus: AVO Inversion

Franck Delbecq

…‘Invert, always invert’ Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi’s maxim (1804 – 1851) (And more recently, Charlie Munger and Warren Buffett) “Most people, if you describe a train of events to them will tell you what the result will be. There are few people, however that if you told them a result,…

Geophysical insights into completions and production predictability for a shale gas reservoir using fault intensity and AVO inversion

Carl Reine and Sean Lovric

…We show that fault intensity and AVO inversion offer insights into hydraulic fracturing operations in a shale-gas reservoir. This is supported by microseismic data using calculations of event density, SRV dimensions, b-value, D-value, and hydraulic diffusivity. We also demonstrate that fault intensity is linked to the azimuthal anisotropy of the…

Using uncertainty in quantitative seismic characterization

Rémi Moyen

…Over the past two decades, the overall trend has been for a more quantitative use of seismic in building geomodels and interpreting subsurface data. Acoustic seismic inversion has become commonplace, and more complex techniques tend to move closer to a direct modeling of petro-physical properties such as porosity or fluid…

Quantitative seismic interpretation – an earth modeling perspective

Damien Thenin and Ron Larson

…Earth models are routinely used in the oil & gas industry to integrate multidisciplinary data for subsurface property predictions. While most earth models predict reasonably well at the field scale, they often fail to accurately predict the subsurface conditions at a specific location, especially in stratigraphically complex reservoirs. There are…

Proceedings of an unsession

Matt Hall & Evan Bianco

…Who of us would not be glad to lift the veil behind which the future lies hidden; to cast a glance at the next advances of our science and at the secrets of its development during future centuries? What particular goals will there be toward which the leading [geoscientific] spirits…

David Mosher

An Interview with David Mosher

…David, let us begin by asking you about your educational qualifications and your work experience. I was doing an undergraduate geology degree at Acadia University when I landed a summer job at the Bedford Institute of Oceanography with Natural Resources Canada (then called Energy Mines and Resources). The experience, particularly…

President’s Message

…I was able to attend the SEG meeting, late September in Houston. As an affiliated Society CSEG has four seats on SEG’s Council. A couple of years ago SEG Council was re-tooled, if you will, to foster a decentralization out of Houston. This is an intriguing development viewed from a…

Executive Message

…My two year term, with the first year as Assistant Director of Finance and then this year as Director of Finance for the CSEG, ends this March. I have enjoyed the opportunity to serve the society and you over these two years. I leave you in capable hands as our…

CAGC Column

…How can anyone be wrong when both sides are right? Commentary on the Democrat-Republican shutdown of the US Government Two men say they’re Jesus, one of them must be wrong. Industrial Disease by Dire Straits I deal in scientific facts, so I have no opinion on what Jesus might do.…

Value of Integrated Geophysics

…An Unconventional View of Geophysics Introduction Unconventional resource plays are often considered statistical plays, which in the parlance of the recent E&P industry mean that they are simply drilled in a pattern without much thought or science applied as to where to drill. They are drilled with the expectation that…

Science Break: Baye’s Theorem in Practice

…As a follow up to his excellent September VIG column (Value of Integrated Geophysics, Sept. 2013 RECORDER) Lee Hunt suggested I build an article around Bayes’ theorem. Lee has published an article with some excellent examples of Bayesian methods before (Hunt, 2013), but we thought something fluffier would make for…

Tracing the Industry

…ON THE MOVE... Kelly Hrabi would like his past colleagues and friends to know he is no longer at Taqa Ltd. Kelly can be reached at 587-896-8976 or Kelly.hrabi@gmail.com. Absolute Imaging Inc., a seismic data processing company based in Calgary, is pleased to announce three new additions to the Absolute…

Grapevine

…WOMEN IN SEISMIC Results Thank you to all participants and Sponsors who attended the 13th Annual Women in Seismic Golf Tournament. This event also marked our induction into the CSEG family of events. WE DID IT! In total over the last 13 years we have surpassed $100,000. Actual number is…

Seismic Clustering Uncloistered – Application to Resource Plays

Kurt J. Marfurt

…Clustering algorithms are used every day in marketing – from the good people at Amazon suggesting you buy a structural geology book based on your most recent purchase, to those at Google popping up a coupon on your smart phone when your GPS tells them you are once again standing…

Introduction to the special section on ‘Microseismic’

Bill Goodway

…Passive microseismic monitoring has been a key technology used to map the stimulated portion of the reservoir through locating the sources of seismic waves generated by various modes of hydro-frac induced rock failure. The method was initially proposed as far back as the 70’s and published in a paper titled…

Microseismic Case Study: Getting the most from your microseismic survey

Michael Doerksen

…A junior oil and gas company was preparing to develop the Cardium sand on their acreage in the Willesden Green area of Alberta. To optimally drain the acreage, horizontal well density and the number of frac stages employed using multi stage fracture stimulation was questioned. To answer this, they contracted…

The influence of HTI anisotropy on microseismic event location – a case study from a tight gas field in British Columbia

Zuolin Chen, Barbara Cox and Colin Perkins

…VTI anisotropy has been proven to have a large impact on the location accuracy of microseismic events associated with hydraulic fracture monitoring (e.g., Erwemi et al., 2010, Maxwell et al., 2010 ). However, the influence of HTI anisotropy on microseismic event location has rarely been taken into consideration and measured.…

Unintentional Seismicity Induced by Hydraulic Fracturing

Shawn Maxwell

…Hydraulic fracturing normally creates only small magnitude events: the microseismicity that is often used to image the fracture growth. These weak microseismic events have magnitudes less than zero, and are often challenging to even detect on surface let alone be felt. However, concern is rising associated with hazards associated with…

A low-frequency downhole sparker for borehole seismic applications

Werner M. Heigl, Robert P. Radtke, Robert H. Stokes, David A. Glowka

…We report on the development of a downhole sparker source that is able to generate acoustic signals with peak frequencies between 2 and 1000 Hz. The sparker can be configured such that the energy of the produced acoustic signals lies within a spectral band that is suitable for transmission lengths…

President’s Message

…Sometime in May I received an email from Scott Leaney who indicated there was a grass roots movement by close friends of noted UBC professor Tad Ulrych to undertake a small seminar honoring Tad’s very considerable contributions to geophysics. The impetus behind the event was Dr. Ulrych’s health – he’d…