Geosciences community looks ahead with optimism
By Chris Posey
Audience members stood along the edges of the conference room, listening intently as eight presenters shared their image of the future of geophysics during the Recent Advances and the Road Ahead Special Session that took place Monday afternoon during the SEG International Exposition and 80th Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, USA. The kickoff special session was led by eight undisputed leaders in the geosciences community and played host to an audience so large that many had to stand in order to take part.
The session began with a presentation from Ed Biegert entitled Airborne gravity, where can we go from here? As Biegert shared his insights about applications for non-seismic technologies, he emphasized that "we need to know where we've been and where we're going." As an introduction, Biegert displayed on the screen the table of contents of the first issue of Geophysics. He then noted that many of the topics that were being addressed at the journal's inception are the very same issues geophysicists deal with today.
Biegert specifically addressed advances in gravity and gravity gradiometry, noting the importance of airborne and satellite systems. As he concluded his lecture, he addressed advances in magnetics as well as advances in direct hydrocarbon detection.
Next, SEG president and 2009 SEG Distinguished Lecturer Craig Beasley presented Exploration geophysics after 100 years: what is left to do? Beasley opened with his own presentation slides from five years previous in order point out what had changed in the geophysical landscape since then. In 2005, considerations impacting geophysics included recession, peak oil, and unstable financial and political situations, among other things. Like Ed Biegert, Beasley acknowledged that not much had changed over time.
Beasley continued his lecture discussing advances in land data, marine acquisition, and a number of issues pertaining to integration and imaging and earth model building. Beasley concluded with a look at what he referred to as "grand challenges." These challenges included seismic at borehole and reservoir scale and full earth model interpretation.
Oz Yilmaz then took the podium sharing his presentation entitled The road ahead for near-surface seismology, referring initially to this road as "dusty."One of Yilmaz's larger concerns was near surface and its effects on subsurface. He spoke of his studies isolating the effects of different influences on near-surface modeling, as well as the challenges of gathering field data in this context. He discussed in detail several near-surface modeling methods including uphole surveys, shallow seismic surveys,travel time inversion, wave field inversion, and joint inversion. Yilmaz suggested in a tongue-in-cheek manner that the latter two issues be left to young geophysicists.
Yilmaz wrapped up by introducing what he referred to as "iStats": a conglomeration of disciplines that promotes "image-based effective-medium near surface modeling workflow." As Yilmaz concluded, he revised his initial assessment of the road ahead for near-surface seismology, now referring to it as "clear." The audience, laughing and applauding, seemed to agree.
Former SEG Distinguished Lecturer David Lumley took over at this point, presenting a lecture entitled Next generation challenges in geophysical reservoir monitoring. He covered the salient topics of reservoir monitoring, 4-D seismic response, and CESM, speaking at length about the challenges native to the use of 4-D and offering several solutions Lumley then reviewed a number of major geophysical projects surrounding the Australian continent.
A white-coated Peter Duncan took a short break from the SEG Challenge Bowl finals to share his presentation entitled Microseismic for fracture monitoring in shale reservoirs. The primary focus of his presentation was that of trends in shale gas production. Duncan expounded upon technologies he felt were responsible for a continued increase in shale gas estimates, including fracing and seismic monitoring.
Duncan's goal was to take a look beyond the "dots in the box." In doing so, he examined alternate fracture model sets, mentioning that knowing which model to use is important. He viewed the "road ahead" as including statistical analysis of rock behavior,anisotropy estimates,integration with seismic and wellbore data. According to Duncan, the determination of these mechanisms is the key to looking beyond the aforementioned "dots in the box."
Session organizer Amos Nur changed directions somewhat with his presentation, The future of rock physics: Imaging and computing. Nur spoke of the exponential growth of interest in rock physics. He felt this growth was due to geosteering, more efficient drilling, and better wellbore management.
A key issue of rock physics according to Nur involves moving geophysical measurements to characterization of rock properties and monitoring of pore scale processes. He identified past and present sources of rock property information noting that idealized theoretical models have reached their limit and that empirical data is also limited. Nur proposed that real 3-D pore architecture is needed to replace idealized models. He felt that the future of rock property analysis rests in imaging and computing pore space in 3-D.
Kurt Strack followed with a presentation asking the question Electromagnetics in E&P—Where are we going from here? Strack's presentation focused a great deal on market concerns, especially with regard to borehole, airborne, land, marine, and monitoring. Strack commented that each has notable limitations, and he encouraged integration as a solution to these limitations. Such a strategy meets customer needs because, Strack reasoned, customers do not want just one technology.
In looking ahead, Strack noted that seismic and electromagnetics are more promising technologies for the future. To answer the question posed by his presentation title, Strack asserted that the future is defined by more seismic data, lower cost per site, and operational integration.
Fabio Rocca concluded the opening Special Session with a presentation composed by himself, D.W. Vasco, and A. Ferretti, entitled Revealing fluid flow in the reservoir using satellite-based measurements of surface deformation. In his presentation, Rocca focused specifically on Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR), stressing that multipass inferometry is necessary. He listed several applications for SAR including mapping temporal evolution of ground displacement; enabling wide-area understanding of uplift; quantifying historical ground movement; and remaining a cost-effective alternative. Rocca concluded with a list of advantages and limitations of SAR.
Thus ended a very forward-looking opening special session, which was narrated by eight heavyweights of the geophysical community. It was a full 3½ hours that resulted in the painting of a very optimistic picture of the future of geophysics.
Click here for event photos
Related Annual Meeting News:
