DISC David Johnston makes SEG history 2013 Annual Meeting DISC sees top five attendance,
continues on to Nigeria and Angola by Chris Posey DISC audience engages as Annual Meeting events commence It was a muggy, drizzly day as David Johnston kicked off the preliminary events for SEG's 83rd Annual Meeting and International Exposition. It was the 16th Distinguished Lecturer Short Course (DISC) to be held at an SEG Annual Meeting. Despite the weather, a lively crowd converged upon the Hilton Ballroom of Americas at the Hilton Americas hotel in Houston, Texas, to take part in what was the fourth-largest Annual Meeting DISC presentation in SEG history.  The course, entitled Making a Difference with 4D: Practical Applications of Time-Lapse Seismic Data, was attended by more than 130 participants – a record number for an Annual Meeting DISC presentation. This session alone accounted for almost 20% of cumulative DISC participants since Johnston began his tour in early April of this year. Previous to the Annual Meeting stop, 676 corporate, academic, and student participants attended the course. Those who attended Friday's lecture came from a number of different countries outside the US, including Angola, Australia, Canada, Denmark, UK, India, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. The SEG DISC is an eight-hour, one-day short course that examines a contemporary topic in the field of geophysics. The course is generally presented at more than 25 locations each year around the world, but by the time the David Johnston's DISC tour wraps up in January 2014, he will have presented the course 35 times in 25 countries and 6 continents around the world. The 2013 DISC has already made stops in Colombia, Canada, the United States, Scotland, Norway, Romania, Italy, France, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Venezuela.
Johnson anticipates new DISC stops Following the Annual Meeting, Johnston will continue his travels to Brazil, Argentina, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Turkey, India, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and Equatorial New Guinea. In addition to these locations, Johnston will visit Nigeria, visited by only one other SEG DISC (Kurt Marfurt), and Angola, a location never before visited by an SEG DISC. ExxonMobil provides support for David Johnston's DISC tour in a concerted effort to propagate relevant, essential geophysical information across the globe. Specifically, David Johnston's lecture focuses on the following key principles: - The future for geophysical monitoring
- Introduction to 4D seismic technology
- Reservoir engineering fundamentals
- The petrophysical basis for 4D
- 4D seismic modeling and feasibility studies
- Seismic acquisition and repeatability
- 4D seismic processing, data analysis and QC
- Interpretation and data integration
Established in 1998, the DISC has now seen almost 30,000 participants in its 16-year history. Selection as the DISC instructor is viewed as a major honor and recognition of excellence by the SEG. The instructor is a prominent geophysicist whose work and presentation appeal to a wide audience ranging from students and professionals. |
