Explorer Geophysical Corner

Using supervised neural networks for mapping reservoir properties can improve resolution as demonstrated by the PNN Zp inversion, or using such networks for classifying variable lithologies can improve clarity as established by the seismic object detection result.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The Gulf of Mexico Basin is a source of seemingly endless hydrocarbon resources, and just one topic to be explored in the Discovery Thinking Forum at this month’s ICE.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

The Eagle Ford shale play in South Texas emerged as a leading unconventional prospect even as oil and gas prices crumbled, making it one of the few promising U.S. production prospects in today’s price environment.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

The Carbonate Depositional Systems course is an excellent introductory course that assumes no pre-existing knowledge. It is designed for earth scientists and engineers involved in exploration or production from carbonate rocks. It moves from basic principles to advanced ideas and case studies that will also help experienced geoscientists with practical aspects of carbonate depositional systems.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Coherence is an iconic attribute available on most interpretation workstations and it helps with the characterization of small and large-scale faults, large structures, fault truncations, buried channels, reef edges and unconformities. There are various algorithms available for coherence computation, each having its advantages and limitations in terms of the quality of coherence imaging of the features of interest and run times associated with them.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Director’s Corner

Unconventional resources have transformed the global energy landscape. And as this issue hits your mailbox, geoscientists and engineers from around the world are in San Antonio, Texas for the fourth edition of URTeC, the Unconventional Resources Technology Conference from August 1-3.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Interpolation of seismic data is an important application in exploration seismic signal processing. The need for interpolation on incomplete data may be due to acquisition limitations, economic constraints or regularizing of merged data with a variety of shooting parameters from different vintages.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

High resolution fault visualization from seismic is an area that shows new promise, especially in finding compartments and new productive zones. High resolution fault volumes can be used to find small faults that have been intersected by wells and led to drilling problems (fluid losses, borehole stability issues, casing damage), as well as production problems. Fault volumes can be used to identify and e.g. shut off faults that are delivering water, or that allow cross-flow between zones and wells. The volumes can be also used to stay clear of faults, or target sweet spots or compartments in future wells.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

This work demonstrates a modern workflow that directly extracts high-resolution, large-scale fracture networks from seismic inversion-based structural attributes. The workflow is successfully applied to a thrust-belt controlled, lower Triassic, siltstone reservoir in the Montney Formation of the Farrell Creek area in northeast British Columbia to extract a 3-D fracture network orthogonal to the primary stress direction.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

The goal of this two-day workshop is to proactively create opportunities yourself and your company in a low price environment. You will learn how to bring value propositions to operators. Revitalize reservoirs for less than the cost of plugging and abandoning, paid for by increased production. Rethink reservoirs and push paradigm shifts that will result in breakthroughs.  We will discuss how to use these times to pilot new products and technologies and thus position innovative companies to boom when conditions improve. This event is for engineers, geologists, geophysicists, land professionals, and entrepreneurs. *Please see our discounted rates for unemployed geoscientists, students and young professionals

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) seismic-reflection surveys provide one of the most important data types for understanding subsurface depositional systems. Quantitative analysis is commonly restricted to geophysical interpretation of elastic properties of rocks in the subsurface. Wide availability of 3D seismic-reflection data and integration provide opportunities for quantitative analysis of subsurface stratigraphic sequences. Here, we integrate traditional seismic-stratigraphic interpretation with quantitative geomorphologic analysis and numerical modeling to explore new insights into submarine-channel evolution.

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Request a visit from Jacob Covault!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Around 170 million years ago, the Gulf of Mexico basin flooded catastrophically, and the pre-existing landscape, which had been a very rugged, arid, semi-desert world, was drowned beneath an inland sea of salt water. The drowned landscape was then buried under kilometers of salt, perfectly preserving the older topography. Now, with high-quality 3D seismic data, the salt appears as a transparent layer, and the details of the drowned world can be seen in exquisite detail, providing a unique snapshot of the world on the eve of the flooding event. We can map out hills and valleys, and a system of river gullies and a large, meandering river system. These rivers in turn fed into a deep central lake, whose surface was about 750m below global sea level. This new knowledge also reveals how the Louann Salt was deposited. In contrast to published models, the salt was deposited in a deep water, hypersaline sea. We can estimate the rate of deposition, and it was very fast; we believe that the entire thickness of several kilometers of salt was laid down in a few tens of thousands of years, making it possibly the fastest sustained deposition seen so far in the geological record.

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Request a visit from Frank Peel!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
VG Abstract

In comparison with the known boundary conditions that promote salt deformation and flow in sedimentary basins, the processes involved with the mobilization of clay-rich detrital sediments are far less well established. This talk will use seismic examples in different tectonic settings to document the variety of shale geometries that can be formed under brittle and ductile deformations.

Request a visit from Juan I. Soto!

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)

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