Presidential Column

…Well, as I write this, it’s the Monday after the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede and the city is shockingly back to normal. There were many excellent industry functions during this year’s Stampede and hopefully many of you were able to participate. By the time you read this article,…

Chief Editor’s Report

…The end of classes at SAIT in April and the time off during July and August was the perfect opportunity for me to work on getting a head start in delivering the next 10 issues of the RECORDER. First, I have to express my sincere gratitude to Satinder Chopra for…

CAGC Column

…The past two winters were busy with the amount of seismic activity in Canada. Despite the jittery world economy in 2012, companies report booking up already with winter coming up. With just ten land seismic companies left in Canada (depending upon how you count them) and the usual challenges with…

CSEG Foundation Outreach

…Seismic Interpolation Workshop at the U of C sponsored by CSEG-F and CGGVeritas On 25th and 26th of April, 2012, the Graduate Association of Geology and Geophysics Students (GAGGS) at the University of Calgary organized a two-day workshop on Seismic Interpolation instructed by Dr. Mostafa Naghizadeh, from the University of…

Tracing the Industry

…The theme of this month’s RECORDER is Acquisition. In keeping with that theme, Joe Bonaventura of Synterra Technologies is sharing his story of how he got involved in the Seismic industry. Congratulations to R.J. Vestrum on his recent award from APEGA. Well done R.J.! Amanda Knowles of Sound QI is…

Through the Eyes of a Student

…After a short hiatus for final exams and the summer break, I am back at the keyboard. I hope you enjoyed the guest columns that were submitted in my absence. A lot has happened in that time and I am really excited to tell you all about it. So much…

Grapevine

…Welcome back Everyone! I trust that you all had a great summer, and are now ready to get back in the swing of things! There are a lot of events (educational and social) that are coming up in the Fall, so will be a great chance for you to get…

David Birnie

An Interview with David Birnie

…All right Dave, tell us about your educational background and your work experience. I have a B.Sc. in Applied Science in Geological Engineering from Queen's University (Kingston, Ontario) after which I decided to pursue graduate work. I went out to UBC in Vancouver, did a Master's Degree in Geophysics, and…

Identifying Fault Activation in Shale Reservoirs Using Microseismic Monitoring during Hydraulic Stimulation: Source Mechanisms, b Values, and Energy Release Rates

Michael Kratz, Arifandy Aulia, and Andrew Hill

…Abstract Microseismic monitoring is an important tool for developing unconventional resources such as shale gas and understanding the geomechanical properties of the reservoir. Identification of fault planes that intersect horizontal wellbores is critical for optimizing formation stimulation and avoiding the establishment of fluid flow pathways into nontarget formations, such as…

Fourier Domain Regularization 5D and More

Valentina Khatchatrian

…Summary Global multi dimensional regularization has become a widely used tool in seismic data processing. Many advantages of regularization in the Fourier domain come with some serious problems. In this paper we consider the intrinsic properties of the Fourier transform to identify problems and limitations of the method. A practical…

Non-hyperbolic MultiFocusing Improves Depth Imaging

Alex Berkovitch, Kostya Deev, Marianne Rauch-Davies, and Evgeny Landa

…Summary MultiFocusing technology can dramatically improve the quality of seismic imaging especially in cases of low fold data, poor signal- to- noise ratio and sparse 3D acquisition. At the same time, local parameters of the observed wavefield in prestack seismic records are of great interest for many seismic applications such…

Presidential Column

…This will be the last RECORDER before our summer break (July and August) and we will be returning in September. Most things related to the Society shut down during July and August, as most of us will be taking summer holidays and trying to get a little R&R. However, the…

Through the Eyes of a Student

…This month I thought I would bring in a guest columnist to give some insight from a different angle. Kurt Mulhall is a student in his final year of geophysics at the UofC and is gearing up to enter the workforce. Enjoy! As I sit here writing this article I…

Grapevine

…It's almost Summertime! Quick congratulations go out to the University of Calgary's team in the CSEG's Challenge Bowl at the GeoConvention. Naser Yousefzadeh and Kenneth D'Silva edged out the team from the University of Western Ontario (Joel Shank and Adrian Smith) to bring it home to the UofC. Congratulations to…

CAGC Column

…Wally Baer, CEO of Enform over the past five years and a friend and mentor of mine, retired at the end of May 2012. (Enform is the Canadian Association of Upstream Oil and Gas Associations for Safety and Training, based in Calgary). I was fortunate enough to be asked to…

Executive Message

…It has been a pretty exciting past year working with Cheran Mangat, outgoing Director of Communications, and now Jason Schweigert, the current Assistant Director of Communications. I would like to thank Cheran not only for taking the time out of her busy schedule to serve the Society, but for spearheading…

Tracing the Industry

…The GeoConvention is over for another year. I realized this convention marks my twelfth year of volunteering for the CSEG. I started on the marketing committee for GeoCanada 2000. Since 2003 I have been on at least two committees each year, one year I was on four! I must thank…

4D Study of Secondary Recovery Utilizing THAI from a Saskatchewan Heavy Oil Reservoir

Kurt Wikel and Rob Kendall

…Heavy oil recoveries in most heavy oil reservoirs in Western Canada are usually less than 10% under primary recovery schemes (native pressure and oil saturation). Thermal methods have been utilized in the Saskatchewan heavy oil region by many operators as a profitable alternative to traditional enhanced oil recovery (EOR) schemes.…

Ken Mitchell

An Interview with Ken Mitchell

…Ken, let's begin with the first question – tell us about your educational background and your work experience. Sure, I graduated from the University of Western Ontario in the Honours Geophysics program with a concentration in Geology. To provide practical insight, I was fortunate to have had work experience that…

Presidential Column

…With Spring Break-up in full swing it’s time for many of us to sit back and take a breather, others are not so lucky. While the bulk of seismic activity in Canada is carried out in the three to four months when the ground is frozen, there are many activities…