Workshop Schedule
Thursday Workshops
“Best of D&P Forum”
Organizers: Bob Hardage and Michael Payne
Through the support of the Development and Production Committee
Description
The theme of the 2008 D&P Forum, “The Role of Scaling and Uncertainty in Reservoir Characterization,” was chosen after polling the committee membership about topics that need to be addressed to improve the quality and breadth of reservoir characterization. The D&P Forum is unique among SEG’s workshops and forums in that it seeks to have a balanced attendance from reservoir engineers, geologists, petrophysicists, and geophysicists. The planning committee for the 2008 forum is structured with this multidisciplinary concept in mind—a reservoir engineer, a geologist, a rock physicist, and two geophysicists. The 2008 D&P Forum was held 27-31 July in Austin, USA. Each attendee was encouraged to present a paper or poster. The best presentations from the forum will be repeated during this workshop at the convention.
“Interpreting depth-imaged data: Case studies, examples, and pitfalls from the interpreter’s perspective”
Organizers: Gary Lewis, David H. Johnston, and Jim DiSiena
Through the support of the Interpretation Committee
Description
The use of depth data has increased significantly over the past decade, becoming a central tool for exploring and developing hydrocarbon accumulations in a variety of image-challenged environments. Much depth-imaging literature has focused on imaging algorithms and the technology behind estimating velocities. However, there has been much less discussion of the interpretation issues associated with depth data. These include special techniques for interpreting surfaces to be used in velocity estimation and velocity model construction; the use of attributes (including amplitude and amplitude with offset) extracted from depth data and the related problem of calculating or compensating for illumination effects caused by complex velocity fields; and the problem of conversion from seismic to well depth. This workshop will focus on these interpretation issues. Papers, posters, and a panel discussion will address the application of 3D depth-imaged seismic data to solve real-world interpretation problems. Case histories will be emphasized.
“Mentoring geophysicists in the mining industry”
Organizers: Ken Witherly and Richard Smith
Through the support of the Mining and Geothermal Committee
Description
In the next decade, the minerals exploration industry will be seeing the combined effects of a number of major events to an industry which in many ways, remained unchanged since the mid-20th century. Four of the major forces at work are:
- New graduates are likely to be in chronic short supply over the next 10 years.
- The departure of the baby boomers from the industry. This phenomenon will not be as abrupt as in the extractive side of mining, as many geoscientists are capable & willing to work well past the normal retirement age, but the effect will nevertheless be significant and permanent.
- A changing attitude toward exploration by the mega-miners where the importance of single deposits means far less than it did 10 years ago.
- Predictions of commodity ‘supercycle’ over the next 10+ years will keep pressures on all aspects of the industry.
This workshop will be in panel discussion format. Panelists will relate some anecdotes about how they were attracted into the industry; what sustained them through their early years; and describe how someone acted (or perhaps did not act) as a mentor to them. Suggestions for what a recent recruit requires will also be discussed. Input from the floor will also be encouraged.
The workshop will also include a discussion about what we as individuals can do to help the situation. Can we harness the power of the internet in some way to assist us in dealing with this issue? Ideas about what we can do collectively under the umbrella of the SEG will also be solicited and discussed.
“Integration of multiscale data: Upscaling and data fusion”
Organizers: Partha Routh, Ian (Zhiyi) Zhang, and Cynthia Xue
Through the support of the Research Committee
Description
Reservoir characterization requires integration of a variety of data sets at different scales e.g., seismic, EM, well-logs, core, pressure, and geological information. The objective is to bring together geophysicists, petrophysicists, geologists, and engineers to share experience, discuss issues arising in this integration process, and possible ways to solve those issues. Some of the open questions include:
- What are the current “best” practices? What are the challenges and where are the gaps? How to fill the gaps? Have any advanced measurements been able to fill the gap of multi-scale data integration? Or are there any novel methods that can integrate reservoir information obtained from data at different scales?
- How are multi-scale data types handled, such as seismic and EM, seismic and geomechanics, and seismic and reservoir simulation?
- When the reservoir heterogeneity is at a different scale pursuing the properties of individual sand-shale layers may be economically prohibitive and technically infeasible. What are the optimal methods that can effectively integrate the multi-scale physical property information to improve prediction and reduce risk?
- How are the uncertainties in the data sets handled in the context of integration processes such as in upscaling procedures, joint inversions, and geostatistics?
“Ocean-bottom geophysics”
Organizers: Norm Allegar, Ian McMillan, Ken Green, and Svein Ellingsrud
Through the support of the Research Committee
Description
The use of ocean-bottom marine technology has brought geophysics closer to the reservoir. The technologies include marine electromagnetics, 4C nodal seismic, 4C ocean-bottom cables and seabed gravity. Marine electromagnetics (CSEM) has proven its value as a direct hydrocarbon indicator (DHI), as a structural reconnaissance tool, and most recently as a method to characterize the reservoir. Four component nodal- and cable-based seismic has shown greatly improved data quality even in early acquisition systems. Ocean-bottom seismic data in general has yielded improved imaging, especially in areas of complex bathymetry, and has shown promise as reservoir monitoring tool.
This workshop will explore both the technical and business benefits of ocean-bottom geophysical measurements. Recent technology advances and case histories will be discussed and highlight where ocean-bottom measurements contribute to the overall exploration and appraisal stages.
“Uncertainty analysis in geophysical imaging, estimation, and inverse problems”
Organizers: David Lumley and Eldad Haber
Through the support of the Research Committee
Description
Errors in the input data and parameters to geophysical imaging, estimation, and inverse methods lead to uncertainty in the resulting images and estimates. This workshop plans to address theoretical, computational, and practical approaches to quantify the input errors and explore the space of uncertainty in the geophysical results.
For example, uncertainty in a seismic velocity model can cause large variability in the resulting seismic image—but this is rarely quantified or explored. What can be done to explore and quantify the image uncertainty? Which parts of the image are more reliable than others? How far could the events move and amplitudes change given the known uncertainty range in the velocity model? Can we generate a pdf-movie of the image as a function of velocity error to quantify the image uncertainty? Are there other approaches?
Presentations will include a wide variety of geophysical applications of interest at the workshop, including 3D seismic structural uncertainty, velocity-tomography uncertainty, nonlinear DC resistivity inversion, 4D seismic pressure-saturation inversion, particle swarm optimization, and funnel-function uncertainty and resolution analysis.
“Gravity in motion”
Organizers: John Lumley and Ed Biegert
Through the support of the Gravity and Magnetics Committee
Description
This workshop will focus on all aspects of moving platform (satellite, airborne, marine, borehole) high-resolution potential field measurements and on their integrated interpretation. The goal of the workshop is to address the utility of the techniques, and throughout to keep in mind the establishment of a set of responses to the questions “Why should I use these techniques?” and “How do they really benefit the exploration process?” The workshop will cover a broad subject area ranging from an analysis of noise in current state-of-the-art instrumentation, of the processing of real data, and of case studies involving the interpretation and integration of real processed data. Contributions will address the implied subject matter, the following being a non exhaustive list of topics.
- Potential field theory, the use of consistent terminology and units
- Noise—how it gets into the measurements, how best to represent it
- Comparison of moving platform gravimetry and gravity gradiometry
- Resolution and detectability, and appropriate measures thereof
- Data acquisition, survey planning, and additional complementary data sets
- Processing techniques, noise reduction, and use of complementary data sets
- Interpretation techniques utilizing complementary and other data sets
- Case histories of integrated interpretations
The workshop is designed to be highly interactive with significant time set aside for Q&A.
Friday
“The state-of-the-science in the use of seismic methods for mineral exploration”
Organizers: Anton Kepic, Bernd Milkereit, and Milovan Urosevic
Through the support of the Mining and Geothermal Committee
Description
The application of seismic in hard rock environments is growing. Currently, several big 3D surveys are being planned or acquired to assist in exploring for nickel and to a lesser extend gold, base metals, and iron ore. One of the objectives is using the seismic data to directly target drilling. Seismic has already been used successfully when searching for gold. When used in conjunction with other geophysical data, seismic reflection data can reduce the drilling risk when searching for mineral deposits.
The application of seismic for coal, potash, and oil sands mining is at a very advanced stage. For example, 3D surface seismic data for coal exploration can be successfully used to directly estimate the geophysical strata rating.
Papers were solicited that discuss the application of 3D seismic methods for mineral and coal exploration. Papers describing research on issues that will improve the application of seismic methods will also be presented (the use of VSP, wire-line logging, crooked line processing, surveys around open pits, acquisition in noisy environments like mine sites, etc).
“Adaptive cancellation of noise”
Organizers: Warren Ross and Eric Verschuur
Through the support of the Research Committee
Description
Purpose: Explore various methods of adaptively removing noise from seismic data, given a prediction of the noise. Identify state of the art and outstanding problems.
Motivation: Very accurate methods exist for prediction of certain types of noise in seismic data, particularly in seismic multiples. Currently, data-driven and wave-equation methods are often used to predict multiples in 3-D seismic data in a full 3D fashion. However, even with increasingly accurate predictions, the predicted noise must be adapted to some extent to the noise in the data. This is most typically accomplished by local least squares filtering, often called adaptive subtraction. Adaptive subtraction is one of the key frontiers in data-driven noise removal (along with interpolation and regularization). The workshop will capture ideas from leading researchers in the field on adaptive subtraction, and more generally, methods of adapting any prediction of noise in seismic data to the noise in the data itself. These methods could be linear or nonlinear, involve local or global optimization, etc. Furthermore, it is thought that the emphasis should be on the optimality of the method and not on computational efficiency, since that latter is a moving target with the increasing speed and parallelization of computers.
“Advanced velocity model building techniques for depth imaging”
Organizers: Bin Wang, Henri Houllevigue, and Jim Gaiser
Through the support of the Research Committee
Description
Ray-based tomography using kinematic residual moveout (RMO) picking has been the industry standard practice to derive a velocity model for depth imaging, and generally yields good results. This method, however, tends to break down when there is a need to resolve high-wavenumber velocity anomalies such as shallow sand channels or gas clouds. Full waveform inversion, which uses both kinematic as well as dynamic information, has the potential to resolve those anomalies, and has become computationally feasible due to the advancement of computer technology. Velocity analysis based directly on wave equation, both one-way and two-way, could also drive the industry towards more fully automated velocity model building processes.
In salt prone areas, such as the Gulf of Mexico, the standard velocity model building flow consisting of sediment flood and salt flood has been effective for relatively simple salt bodies. However, in complex salt provinces with multiple salt bodies of complicated geometry such as Christmas-tree-like overhangs, the standard iterative flow is not efficient. The industry is looking for more effective and efficient ways to build or refine these challenging salt models. One such new approach is interpretation-driven, interactive model building using fast migration algorithms such as interactive beam migration. This methodology enables quickly testing different salt interpretation scenarios, and deriving a more accurate salt model.
Another area with rapidly advancing technology is anisotropic velocity model building. The industry has been developing practical methods for anisotropic parameter estimation. This has proven to have a great impact on the final prestack depth migration image both in terms of the accuracy of positioning and better focusing of the image as well.
The standard workflow for velocity model building has become increasingly inadequate to handle wide azimuth data. Techniques need to be developed and refined to be able to derive a good velocity model which is able to take advantage of rich azimuth information.
With the more expensive and accurate Reverse Time Migration (RTM) gradually becoming a routine production migration tool, the standard workflow for velocity model building may also need to be modified to derive a better and RTM-consistent velocity model which is able to fully utilize the potential strength of RTM.
“Unconventional time-lapse geophysics”
Organizing committee: Cengiz Esmersoy, David Lumley, Partha Routh, Sergio Chavez-Perez, and Michel Verliac
Through the support of the Research Committee
Description
Time-lapse seismic is now an established technology for monitoring offshore clastic reservoirs. We have seen numerous outstanding results from the North Sea and other areas of the world in the past 10+ years.
Active-source time-lapse seismic is not the only tool that the reservoir geophysicist may consider. Unconventional applications of time-lapse measurements in oilfield, environmental monitoring, and groundwater problems are increasingly gaining importance. Time-lapse monitoring techniques like gravity, passive seismic, EM surveys, cross-well surveys, and ground deformation surveys can provide efficient and often affordable tools for specific monitoring applications.
The goal of this workshop is to show examples of unconventional approaches to time-lapse geophysics and the associated monitoring applications. Case studies, successful or not, are expected to open the floor for discussion of lessons learned, new applications, and needs and gaps. In addition, we will cover topics that look at fundamentally different approaches such as interferometry and novel inversion techniques to solve the time-lapse problem.
We will set the stage with several keynote presentations covering the main themes: gravity, EM, ground deformation, and unconventional seismic. Posters during a dedicated break will expand on these and offer opportunities for more detailed discussions. A final discussion with the audience will try to identify key points to address future challenges.
“Induced polarization: Research and recent advances in near surface applications”
Organizers: Dr. Esben Auken, Dr. Douglas J. LaBrecque, Dr. Lee Slater
Through the support of the Near Surface Geophysics Section and Environmental and Engineering Geophysical Society
Description
Scientists and engineers will come together to share research and application of induced polarization (IP) to near-surface applications including environmental, hydrological, and engineering applications such as infrastructure assessment. The workshop will begin with a short historical/tutorial discussion of IP, followed by technical sessions on:
- recent research in IP data acquisition
- rock properties, theory and laboratory studies of IP
- inverse modeling and imaging of IP data
- near surface applications of IP
The workshop will conclude with a discussion and summary.
“High performance computing in oil and gas: Technical directions and operations issues”
Organizers: Keith Gray, Jan Odegard, Henri Calandra, Chap Wong, David Judson, Scott Morton
Description
This workshop will focus on the advances being made in the computing industry, how they are being implemented in oil and gas, and the operational issues that must be addressed in managing an HPC environment.
The following topics will be discussed:
- Review of current activity in oil and gas companies and seismic contractors. HPC managers will discuss their current systems and coming challenges.
- Technology directions. This will include presentations from the technology leaders in the high performance computing industry. If possible, we will encourage joint presentations with vendors and customers reviewing their work
- Operations Issues. Systems administrators will discuss cluster management requirements, facilities managers will discuss challenges meeting growing power and cooling requirements.
And the day will conclude with a panel discussion where the audience can address questions to the presenters.
Henri Calandra and Scott Morton are organizing an SEG Special Session for Thursday morning, 13 November, on the application of high-performance computing to geoscience problems. We are coordinating topics to minimize overlap and present a more complete view of our industry.
