How to maximize recoverable reserves in an unconventional reservoir using reservoir characterization from 3D seismic: a Barnett Shale Case Study

Roxana Varga, Ted Holden and John Pendrel

…Summary Producing commercial quantities of petroleum and natural gas from organic rich shales was uncommon a decade ago. Due to improved technologies and strengthening in the price of petroleum, activity in unconventional shale projects has increased significantly, particularly as more and more oil reservoirs have been identified. Maximizing recoverable reserves…

Gerard Schuster

An Interview with Gerard Schuster

…Jerry, I would like you to speak a little about your educational background and your work experience. I majored in both physics and chemistry at Portland State University. I switched from physics in graduate school, mainly because of the job opportunities, and received my Master’s degree from the University of…

Presidential Column

…This is my first column as incoming CSEG President for 2013 and important acknowledgements need to be made at the outset. Thank you to the outgoing Executive for choosing to serve the Society with your time. Personal time is precious and our individual overall time as vertical, breathing members of…

Executive Message

…It has been an exciting first year for me on the CSEG Executive. While our social events speak for themselves, we have a tremendous sense of community and I feel very fortunate for the opportunity to experience it firsthand. I am very proud to be part of the Executive team…

CAGC Column

…The year ahead – will the uncertainty begin to clear? The issues at the forefront for the Association include the advent of the Single Regulator in Alberta, the process surrounding timing issues with Biodiversity zones in Northern Alberta, the advent of the new First Nations guidelines in Alberta and hopefully…

CSEG Foundation Outreach

…Mentorship Program The CSEG Foundation Outreach Committee held its second formal mentorship training workshop on January 30th. Helping mentors develop their skills and attributes to guide their protégé geoscientists is just one way to ensure our industry will continue to flourish in the years to come. Larry Herd delivered a…

Science Break: Applied science in the office

…It’s fun to speculate how we’d do in that cliché sci-fi situation, the post nuclear holocaust, à la Mad Max. I imagine we all would be hopeless in terms of being able to recreate various implements, gadgets, devices and technologies which we take for granted. Probably the most self-reliant and…

Tracing the Industry

…ON THE MOVE... Andy Marshall is happy to announce his return to geophysics after having gone over to the dark side a.k.a. engineering for a couple years, a.k.a. engineering. He can still be reached at andy.marshall@encana.com or 403-645-6584. Kyle Dreher is pleased to announce the debut of his geophysical career…

Grapevine

…I’m just taking a look at all of the upcoming events… golf tournaments (T-Wave, DoodleBug and Women in Seismic) and of course, the GeoConvention… just a friendly reminder that if you haven’t renewed your CSEG membership and are planning on playing/attending, there’s a significant discount on fees for these events…

Recent developments in microseismic monitoring: Introduction to the focus issue on Microseismic

David Eaton and Mirko van der Baan

…Increasingly widespread use of passive methods to monitor hydraulic fracture treatment programs is driving technological advances that are changing how microseismic data are acquired, processed and interpreted. This focus issue of the Recorder contains a series of 4 articles that deal with a variety of research topics varying from acquisition…

Optimization of a Shallow Microseismic Array Design for Hydraulic Fracture Monitoring – A Horn River Basin Case Study

Paige Snelling and Neil Taylor

…Summary Many considerations go into the design of a surface or nearsurface array for microseismic monitoring. These include aspects of the array itself such as the number of stations, the station depth and density, array aperture, shallow geology as well as the geology of the target formation and completions design.…

Microseismic Event Locations using the Double-Difference Algorithm

Fernando Castellanos and Mirko van der Baan

…Summary In this work we describe a reprocessing technique to relocate microseismic events based on the double-difference method. First, we use a crosscorrelation technique to assess waveform similarity between events and identify multiplet groups. Then, we correct relative arrival time inconsistencies between doublets. Next we apply the double-difference algorithm, which…

Reservoir heterogeneity and ‘stealth’ zones in microseismic: Role of rock fabric

Per Kent Pedersen and David W. Eaton

…Summary For a single stage of a hydraulic-fracture treatment, microseismic monitoring surveys often reveal event clouds that contain intervening regions where microseisms appear to be sparse or absent (“stealth zones”). Scaling relations from earthquakes suggest that typical microseismic moment magnitudes, in the range of -3 < Mw < -1, occur…

Broadband microseismic observations from a Montney hydraulic fracture treatment, northeastern B.C., Canada

David Eaton, Mirko van der Baan, Jean-Baptiste Tary, Brad Birkelo, Neil Spriggs, Sarah Cutten and Kimberly Pike

…Summary A research project was undertaken in August 2011 for continuous passive monitoring of a multistage hydraulic fracture stimulation of a Montney gas reservoir near Dawson Creek, B.C., with the main objective of investigating low-frequency characteristics of microseismic events. This work was motivated by a recently discovered class of long-period…

Chief Geophysicists’ Forum Microseismic sub-committee – Microseismic Survey

Chris Szelewski and Heath Pelletier

…The Microseismic (MS) sub-committee of the Chief Geophysicists’ Forum (CGF) was formed in June, 2011 in response to the growing industry interest in, and use of MS and the recognition that there was an urgent need for standardization in MS data collection, documentation and deliverables. In order to better understand…

Guidelines for Standard Deliverables

Shawn Maxwell and Florence Reynolds

…Foreword: The following guidelines were created through the Microseismic sub-committee of the CSEG Chief Geophysicists Forum (CGF) and have been endorsed by both the CGF and CSEG. The intention is to define the components of a microseismic project, but purposely avoid the issue of data formats. Separate initiatives are currently…

Weimin Zhang

An Interview with Weimin Zhang

…Weimin, I would like you to speak a little about your educational background and work experience. I did my undergraduate study in Exploration Geophysics in China and obtained my M.Sc. degree in Geophysics from the University of British Columbia. I was accepted into a Ph.D. program in the United States…

Presidential Column

…This will be my last RECORDER article as CSEG President. The Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists remains healthy, vibrant and prosperous. Our social events are considered the best in the industry; The T-Wave Golf Tournament, WISE Golf Tournament, Doodlebug, Doodlespiel, CSPG/CSEG Road Race and Fun Run and the Ski Spree.…

Executive Message

…2012 was a pretty interesting year for the Communications portfolio, and hopefully the hard work of my predecessors, and the various subcommittees I have had the good fortune to have watched work, will be borne out this month at the AGM. What I am still pretty sure started out under…

CAGC Column

…For Resource Industries, Aboriginal Consultation is and will remain one of the most difficult issues to factor out uncertainty. As the Alberta Government currently reworks its Aboriginal Consultation Guidelines, the divide between the three involved party’s – Aboriginals, Alberta Government, and Industry – is great. Each party has a solution…