First Break - Volume 31, Issue 2, 2013

Roel Verreussel, Mart Zijp, Susanne Nelskamp, Laura Wasch, Geert de Bruin, Jan ter Heege and Johan ten Veen introduce a workflow that integrates a full suite of reservoir characterization techniques aimed at derisking shale gas plays.

Eric Andersen, Heather Davey, Chris Steinhoff and Tom Davis explain why hydraulic fracturing in unconventional shale reservoirs with evenly-spaced frac stages along a horizontal or vertical wellbore may not result in the most effective stimulation or highest production.

Inovemstev Alexander Nicolaevich, Stepanov Igor Viktorovich, Galkin Alexander Vasilyevich and Zvi Koren introduce full-azimuth angle domain imaging which in an onshore seismic exploration application resulted in a higher resolution and more informative depth image than conventional migration technology.

Michael S. Zhdanov, Masashi Endo, Noel Black, Lee Spangler, Stacey Fairweather, Andrew Hibbs, George A. Eiskamp and Robert Will present a feasibility study of permanent electromagnetic (EM) monitoring of CO2 sequestration in deep reservoir using a novel borehole-to-surface EM (BSEM) method.

Rick Donoghue and Michael Priestnall report on a possible opportunity to make a stepchange in marine CO2 emissions reduction, potentially enabling zero-carbon operations through on-board CO2 mineral sequestration.

We have developed a new method for extracting geological features from seismic data that is able to make non-local searches on multi-attribute datasets. The input data, which can be seismic data, seismic attributes, or any other data type, are first transformed into characters. The transformed data are searched for complex features with specific character-signatures using text-based search technology. The method allows for feature patterns of different lengths, with different attribute values, and a variable number of sub-features in the character-signature. To make the design of the character-signatures user-friendly, a visually guided design is implemented that enables the user to compose the character-signatures without knowledge of the underlying technology. Since this search methodology for character-signatures holds many similarities with DNA searches for human genes, it is named ‘Seismic DNA.’

In modern petroleum exploration, a huge amount of information is required to support decision-making. Petrobras adopts a strategy of data governance and management to guarantee the integration of a great variety of data coming from different exploration and production areas. A database has been developed to integrate all the data produced by exploration and production activities, and is populated by systems responsible for managing the various types of information. PROLAB is the proprietary platform for rock data management within Petrobras. It consists of several modules that allow input, manipulation, and visualization of rock data in a consistent way, and supports the whole flow of activities in Petrobras’ exploration and production laboratories. Since the information input by the PROLAB system is stored in the integrated database, these data can be viewed, compared, and correlated to other exploration and production data. The integration of exploration and production information brings a great advantage to interpreters who aim at having a complete view of exploration activity. The objective of this work is to present the issues related to the information management of Petrobras’ exploration and production data, and the strategy for handling the variety of information.

Multi-component high resolution seismic reflection profiling has been extensively tested over a wide variety of ground surfaces across the southern provinces of Canada, showing new potential for applications of the method in groundwater and natural hazards research. The near-surface shear-wave reflection method using vibratory sources and short spacing land streamers equipped with three-component receivers is an excellent tool for accurately characterizing shear-wave velocities and recording optimal, non-aliased shear-wave data in the most polarized direction. A small portable multi-component vibrator developed at the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) named ‘Microvibe’ provides higher frequency S-wave and P-wave signals than can be acquired with a Minivib I. In this paper we show that the shear-wave polarization can vary with depth and it may be necessary to combine multiple components together to achieve an optimized stacked section. Significant velocity anisotropies of up to 15% have been observed between the horizontal and vertical directions when using this multicomponent Microvibe source. We make key recommendations based on time and space sampling recording windows for successful near surface PP-wave, PS-wave and SS-wave seismic reflection surveys. Using field examples and velocity measurements, we show the complexity of velocities in non-homogeneous media in the near surface.