Explorer Geophysical Corner

In the early days of analogue recording, geophysicists used seismic data primarily to map structure. However, improvements in data quality by the late 1960s led to the identification of lateral changes in amplitude as well. When the drill bit revealed that some of the higher amplitude events correlated to gas-bearing zones, interpreters started taking them seriously. These streaks of high amplitudes seen on seismic sections were christened “bright spots.” The initial excitement was tempered by the realization that not all bright spots correspond to gas.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Geophysical Corner

Data conditioning tools are necessary to improve seismic interpretation, which is particularly important when examining legacy data. The tools typically adopted for the purpose are structure-oriented filtering and random noise suppression. While these methods can help improve structural or stratigraphic interpretations, they can also impact amplitude anomalies if they are not done with care, which can present problems when examining seismic data for direct hydrocarbon indicators. The examples presented herein demonstrate the advantages and disadvantages associated with these data conditioning tools.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

Most contributions to the exploration community that get attention in articles and conventions concern the essential technical issues: petroleum geology, prospect/play risk analysis and volume expectation, economics, etc. However, once the prospect has been evaluated and the project is validated

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)
Latin America Blog

The AAPG workshop Deep Exploration in the Bolivian’s Sub-Andean: Lessons Learned and Vision for the Future, convened 91 attendees representing 9 countries and 22 companies

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Historical Highlights

Since the early days of petroleum exploration, the industry has met diviners and dowsers who, by using esoteric techniques, simple devices or sophisticated artifacts designed by themselves, have tried to fool companies by claiming they were able to detect oil in the subsurface. In France, during the late 1970s, two eccentric inventors claimed they could directly detect oil in the subsurface from an exceptional device mounted on board an airplane, resulting in one of the most famous frauds in petroleum exploration history.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Explorer Emphasis Article

Michael C. Forrest has been in the industry for more than five decades, first with Shell and then with Maxus, so one could start at any number of points in discussing his impact on geology. Perhaps the best place, though, is the eight-year period that began in 1967 when, at Shell, Forrest recognized the relationship between seismic amplitudes and the presence of hydrocarbons.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

Don't get left behind! Drones and drone-derived digital data are the hottest growth areas around. Combine your geoscience knowledge with new technology, both on the data acquisition side (fly that drone!) and in the project design and data interpretation (make high-powered maps and see what no one else has seen!). AAPG is offering two courses and a two-day GTW to equip you with practical knowledge you can leverage into a great new career opportunity. Combining a workshop with two courses is a great way to expand your knowledge and save time in your already hectic schedule.'The New Opportunities with Drones: New Needs, FAA Rule Changes, New Technologies' workshop brings together experts, equipment providers, robotics experts, and others knowledgeable in a wide range of commercial drone usage, which includes monitoring in the oil industry, digital outcrop surveying, safety and security monitoring, utility inspection, real estate, agriculture, construction, environmental protection, and more. 'Working with Drone Data 101' short course, is beneficial to anyone interested in learning more about Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and how they can play a part in mapping and information services. Drones are used in the oil and gas industry from upstream to downstream, and in many other industries. The second course, 'Use of Surface Geochemistry in Petroleum Exploration' is a one day discussion of the use of surface geochemistry in petroleum exploration for conventional production. This course will help utilize an additional tool in the toolbox to find conventional oil and gas in mature to unexploited basins.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Learn! Blog

How does diagenesis affect rock physics? What is the relationship of the burial history to the rock physics? Both have a dramatic impact on the rock physics properties of not only the reservoir, but also the source and seals. Welcome to an interview with Per Avseth, who discusses rock physics and quantitative seismic interpretation. He also talks with us about how developing an effective rock physics model requires the integration of geological, geophysical, geochemical, and petrophysical information.

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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)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 4 October 2012, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

Effective hydraulic fracture stimulation is critical for shale development, and microseismic is the only technology able to map the growth of these hydraulic fracture networks.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Thursday, 21 May 2020, 9:00 p.m.–10:00 p.m.

Henry W. Posamentier discusses the application of 3-D seismic stratigraphic analyses to the mitigation of risk associated with lithology prediction prior to drilling – workflows and techniques. Principles and workflows of seismic stratigraphy and seismic geomorphology will be discussed and numerous examples will be shown from a variety of different depositional settings.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Friday, 27 March 2009, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

Join two GIS/geoscience experts Scott Sires and Gerry Bartz as they use information from the Teapot Dome Field in Wyoming (DOE/RMOTC program).

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Thursday, 4 June 2020, 3:00 p.m.–4:00 p.m.

Salt welds form due to salt thinning by mechanical (e.g., salt-flow) and/or chemical (e.g., salt-dissolution) processes. This webinar explores how we use 3-D seismic reflection, borehole, and biostratigraphic data to constrain the thickness and composition of salt welds, and to test the predictions of analytical models for salt welding.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Tuesday, 2 June 2020, 6:00 p.m.–7:00 p.m.

Visiting Geoscientist Xavier Moonan provides an overview of the destruction in the Los Iros area following the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that hit Trinidad and Tobago in 2018. His talk focuses on understanding the results from various post-earthquake studies conducted on the Los Iros, reviewing the theories developed to explain the origin and integrating datasets to provide an understanding of what transpired.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 30 August 2012, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

The entire Middle Pennsylvanian–to–top Precambrian basement (500 m) interval was cored in early 2011 in the BEREXCO Wellington KGS #1-32 well in Wellington Field, Sumner County, KS.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 22 October 2009, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This course can help you gain the ability to describe the complex and highly variable reservoirs, which are typified by complex internal heterogeneity.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Webinar
Virtual Webinar
Thursday, 2 July 2020, 4:00 p.m.–5:00 p.m.

Presented by Kevin C. Hill, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne Gravity modelling of Australia's southern margin reveals that the initial rift with Antarctica was beneath the current Ceduna Delta. A regional, high-quality seismic traverse from the coast to oceanic crust across the Bight Basin has been assembled and interpreted in detail, then balanced, restored, decompacted, and replaced at paleo-water depths. The Late Cretaceous Ceduna Delta developed above a Late Jurassic-Early Cretaceous rift basin in three stages punctuated by significant pulses of uplift and erosion across areas >100 km wide and with up to 1 km of erosion. The Cenomanian White Pointer delta prograded into deepening water and hence underwent gravitational collapse. This was terminated in the Santonian when the Antarctic margin was pulled out from below, thus supplying heat to a remnant thicker outer margin crust, causing doming and erosion. Importantly, this established the saucer-shaped geometry of the Ceduna Delta that persisted throughout its development, so that any hydrocarbons generated in the southern half of the basin would have migrated towards this outer margin high. The Tiger Formation was deposited in shallow water in a full rift basin prior to breakup, which was followed by regional thermal subsidence. The Hammerhead delta developed on the newly formed passive margin but was terminated by another pulse of uplift and erosion, perhaps associated with a change in plate motion at the end of the Cretaceous. The finite element modelling of this proposed tectonic evolution will test its validity and predict hydrocarbon generation and migration through time.

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American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
Online e-Symposium
Thursday, 24 October 2013, 12:00 a.m.–12:00 a.m.

This e-symposium will be introducing signal processing techniques as a means to maximize extracting geomechanical data from petrophysical logs.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG)
DL Abstract

Physics is an essential component of geophysics but there is much that physics cannot know or address. 

Request a visit from John Castagna!

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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