Explorer Geophysical Corner

Estimating density from seismic data is a desirable goal to obtain the spatial sampling of the attribute in between the well locations. Various have been introduced that integrate seismic, well and geological data. Although these methods have been around for quite some time, some seismic interpreters remain skeptical about the accuracy of such density estimations.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

'With proven onshore potential, Barbados is set to announce a new offshore licensing round. When in it comes to offshore exploration in the Americas, the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, Brazil and Guyana tend to steal the spotlight. Recent studies in the Caribbean, however, show companies that they may need to look closer at countries with a smaller footprint. One such place is Barbados.'

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Seismic data are usually contaminated with two common types of noise, namely random and coherence. Such noise, if not tackled appropriately, prevents their accurate imaging. Small-scale geologic features such as thin channels, or subtle faults, etc. might not be seen clearly in the presence of noise. Similarly, seismic attributes generated on noise-contaminated data are seen as compromised on their quality, and hence their interpretation. Noise reduction techniques have been developed for poststack and prestack seismic data and are implemented wherever appropriate for enhancing the signal-to-noise ratio and achieving the goals set for reservoir characterization exercises.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

From high-altitude, windswept prairies in southwestern Wyoming, the span of the powerful Wind River and Wyoming Ranges can be seen in the distance. This is home to the Pinedale Anticline Project and the Jonah Field, located in Sublette County, Wyo. In 2000, this was the site of one of the most productive gas fields in the continental United States. Gas reserves were estimated at up to 40 trillion cubic feet. That was enough to serve the nation’s entire natural gas demand for 22 months.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Prestack simultaneous impedance inversion was introduced at the turn of this century with the objective of characterization of target rock intervals in terms of elastic properties, which in turn could be associated with petrophysical properties such as porosity, fluid saturation and volume of shale.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

I landed in Bogota in June 1963 for employment with Texpet Colombia. Exploration of the asymmetrical Putumayo sub-Andean Basin had begun in the 1940s when Texpet sent exploration geologists to document any surface outcrops, but the area was still too remote for further exploration. Ten years later, Texpet drilled some two dozen core wells without finding oil. Then, in 1962, exploration picked up and the company moved a houseboat from the Amazon up the Rio Putumayo to a site upstream from the small, remote river town of Puerto Asis.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

The concept of digital transformation in the oil and gas industry gets talked about a lot these days, even though the phrase seems to have little specific meaning. So, will there really be some kind of extensive cyber-transformation of the industry over the next decade? “No,” said Tom Smith, president and CEO of Geophysical Insights in Houston. Instead, it will happen “over the next three years,” he predicted.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Article

Kurt Marfurt is this year’s Robert R. Berg Outstanding Research Award recipient.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

The Gulf of Mexico is one of the most prolific oil and gas basins in the world. Understandably, the region is also home to many deeply buried mature source rocks and migration pathways to the surface, which result in petroleum seepage on the seafloor. The emerging mineral-rich fluids invite microbes, mollusks and clam to feed on them, and these communities located around the seep locations form hard surfaces and appear to be different from the surrounding seafloor. Such hard surfaces are acoustically reflective and thus are detected by the technology available today.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Latin America Blog

The Bucaramanga team wins the region semifinals for the second time in three years.

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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