Non-seismic Geophysics
.....about to break through, or better to spend your money on a cup of coffee?
Free
FEATURED SPEAKERSHamish Wilson, Keith Nunn and Matt Luheshi
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» SLR
Full Agenda
Thursday, February 19, 2015
London
The Geological Society
When I first joined BP many more years ago than I care to remember, my new boss said something along the lines of “if you have $100, spend $99 on seismic and buy a cup of coffee with the remaining $1!” You will gather he was not very enthusiastic about non-seismic geophysical techniques. And of course, we could point to some well-known classical physics that demonstrated that “Seismic is King!”, having the penetration and resolution never available from potential field and electrical methods.
By and large this has remained true since then, despite expansive claims to the contrary – mainly from Norway – on behalf of electro-magnetic methods. Indeed, the only non-seismic method that is widely recognised as having taken a big step forwards as an exploration tool is Full Tensor Gravimetry (FTG) which does indeed seem to bring a new level of resolution to gravity methods.
However, “never” is a big word and just now it is possible to see the emergence of new and exciting non-seismic technologies, especially as the world of exploration veers back to the onshore regions of the world.
For this half day event, we invite insightful presentations on this topic. So please get in contact if you or your company would like to present, exhibit or sponsor this event.
David Bamford
David Bamford is well known around the oil & gas industry both as an explorer and a geophysicist. He holds a Physics degree from the University of Bristol and a Ph.D in Geological Sciences from the University of Birmingham.
Since 2004, he has been a non-executive director at Tullow Oil plc, being recruited for this position especially for his exploration knowledge. He serves on the Nominations and Remuneration Committees, and was chairman of the latter, and Senior Independent Director, for 3 years prior to his retire from the board at the end of April 2014.
He was on the board of Premier Oil from May 2014 to May 2016.
He retired from BP plc in 2003, his last four positions being Chief Geophysicist (1990-1995), Business Unit Leader (General Manager) for first West Africa and then Norway (1995-1999), and finally Head of Exploration until 2003.
He has served on the boards of Paras Ltd, a small exploration and IS/IT consulting company in which he held 22% equity, until its sale to RPS Energy in 2008 and Welltec a/s, a Danish well engineering company, as the nominee of the private equity investor Riverside.
From 2012 to 201 he was on the board of ASX-quoted Australia Oriental Energy as a non-executive director.
He was a founder of Richmond Energy Partners, a small oil & gas research house, and several media companies that focus on the oil & gas sector, and has served as an advisor to Alliance Bernstein, Opus Executive, the Parkmead Group plc, and Kimmeridge Energy LLP. Since retiring from BP, he has undertaken asset and company valuation projects for investment banks, hedge funds and small oil companies.
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Talk Description
We will describe how and when to apply non-conventional geoscience technologies to reduce exploration risks.
Despite great advances in non-seismic technologies, today’s process of subsurface risk management in Oil and Gas Exploration is still predominantly reliant on seismic data. Yet there are a suite of other, mainly geophysical, based technologies that can augment the power of seismic to understand the subsurface. SLR Consulting has assembled a world-class team of experts to provide the definitive study of when and how to use such technologies.
The focus is initially on geophysics based technologies that have been proven to work and should be in the mainstream of exploration. The technologies reviewed in presentation are (with their respective authors): 1) Crustal studies (refraction seismic) – Jannis Mackris and Keith Nunn 2) Gravity and Magnetics – Alan Reid 3) Full Tensor Gradiometry – Matt Luheshi 4) Marine Electromagnatism (CSEM and MT) – Lucy Macgregor 5) Ocean Bottom Nodes – Ian Jack 6) Microseismic and induced seismicity – Sue Raikes
We will present a route map – a technology-selection guideline for explorers that is intended to be a ‘go-to’ guide for decision makers of the suitability and applicability of each technology in a variety of geological settings. It also provides an indicative budget required for each technology broadly relative to that of a conventional seismic survey.
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Talk Description Getech's long heritage of compiling continental-scale potential fields datasets, developing depth-to-basement interpretation techniques and work at the forefront of satellite altimetry gravity data technology makes us uniquely positioned to producedata and interpretation products which enhance new ventures exploration programmes. In this presentation we present two such projects of a global scale.
Firstly, we will show the development of an integrated gravity and magnetic analysis approach to generate new global depth-to-basement and sediment thickness maps. Depth-to-basement and sediment thickness estimations are important for the new ventures explorationist, since they help to identify potentially productive sedimentary basin areas and to map their extents. In addition, on a basin scale, the depth-to-basement map will provide a vital constraint for source rock maturity modelling and for understanding the local thermal regime in both conventional and unconventional exploration settings. We present an integrated approach to map the depth-to-basement on a global scale using the best available gravity and magnetic data, constrained by published information such as wells and seismic data. The approach uses the relative merits of each of the datasets and new methodologies developed by Getech.
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Simon Campbell is the Manager of Globe Technical Development at Getech Group plc, a geoscience consultancy based in Leeds, England. His particular focus is the analysis of gravity and magnetic data within integrated geoscience studies to address exploration problems. After graduating in Geophysics from University College Cardiff, he received a M.Sc. in Exploration Geophysics from the University of Leeds in 1991. After joining Getech in 1992, he worked primarily on the development of their integrated gravity and magnetic data sets before specialising in the interpretation of potential fields data within the hydrocarbons exploration industry. His primary focus has been the integrated analysis of potential field data with supporting geological and geophysical data to reduce interpretation uncertainties. More recently his interests have included the application of gravity and magnetic modelling in defining crustal architecture and the implications for palaeogeography on a global scale. ?He has over 20 years experience as a potential fields data and interpretation specialist at Getech.
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Talk Description Secondly, we show the recent progress of an exciting new study mapping the continental margins of the world. For the first time in over 20 years, new satellite altimetry data are being acquired, and these new data - from the CryoSat-2, Jason-1 and HY-2A satellites - means a significant increase in data density leading to a higher resolution gravity field for the offshore parts of the globe. We show how careful editing, processing, integration and levelling of these data, calling on over 20 years experience of developing techniques to address the unique challenges of these types of data, is resulting in the most accurate, reliable and coherent dataset available. |
Kirsten joined Getech in 2001 following completing the MSc course in Exploration Geophysics at Leeds University. She has worked extensively in the processing of potential field data and currently manages the Gravity and Magnetic data group. Over her time at Getech she has particularly focused on the development of processing satellite altimetry data to give high resolution gravity solution of the ocean continental margins and is currently heading up Getech's Multi-Satellite project to include the new satellite data from CryoSat-2, Jason-1 and HY-2a and improve the gravity solution further.
Getech For over 25 years, we've been using our data and geoscience expertise to help the oil and mining ind More... | |
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Talk Description 3D modelling of gravity, gravity gradient, and magnetic data has emerged as a cost-effective strategy to improve imaging and interpretations in challenging seismic environments such as sub-salt (O’Brian et. al., 2005; Fichler et. al., 2007; Alvers et. al., 2014). However, to be useful, the inherent ambiguity of potential field data require strict integration with 3D seismic interpretations and other constraining data, giving rise to an extremely challenging inverse problem. The use of gravity gradient data is encouraged by studies that show including selected gravity gradient data in the modelling process can improve the resolution of the modelling (e.g., Zhdanov, et. al., 2004).
Modelling and inversion of potential field data has focused traditionally on two distinct model types: volume defined models (meshes, 3D voxel grids); and surface defined models (layers or surface boundaries). The interpreter would choose which type of model is most appropriate for their project and work within that framework. However, highly constrained inversion problems such as the sub-salt problem and advanced mineral exploration problems require a more flexible approach, one that incorporates the advantages of both volumes and surfaces. To this end, we have developed a 3D “Hybrid” modelling and inversion strategy that takes advantage of the two different ways of representing model components and also takes advantage of the strength of both space-domain and frequency-domain calculation algorithms. Hybrid models by definition contain both volumes and surfaces as core elements.
In this brief abstract we describe one application of hybrid models: we illustrate the hybrid model inversion for solving the base of salt problem using the SEAM density model (Pangman, 2007). We call our implementation of this hybrid model inversion strategy VALEM for Voxel Assisted Layer Enhanced Modelling. |
Geosoft solutions advance exploration of the Earth's subsurface. We provide solutions for exploratio More... | |
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Talk Description EM has come of age and found its place in the value chain, now a consistent, reliable but independent geophysical measurement when integrated with it’s acoustic and other counterparts improves ‘Probability of success’ and more importantly ‘Probability of economic success’. IOC’s and NOC’s who have confidently embedded the measurement into their workflow have produced impressive results. This talk will not be an equation fest but how the explorer can realize value by deploying CSEM at the right time in the right place. |
Daniel Baltar is the Global Exploration Advisor for EMGS ASA.
Is responsible for the integration of CSEM measurements in existing workflows and business models. Previously he founded Cycle Petroleum and was its exploration director from 2018 to 2021. He has had a lead role in the integration of EM data into the exploration workflow, starting with Pemex's campaign in the deep-water Gulf of Mexico, the largest CSEM acquisition in the history of the technology. Furthermore he has developed and published some of the key integration algorithms and workflows bridging exploration performance, play and prospect evaluation, and resistivity rock physics analysis. Also Daniel has worked as an explorationist and seismic QI in many different basins and depositional environments. Also, he has experience in digitalization, pore pressure prediction and shallow hazard analysis. He holds an MSc in Hydrocarbon Exploration and Production form ISE/Heriot-Watt and a degree in Physics.
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David Bamford is well known around the oil & gas industry both as an explorer and a geophysicist. He retired from BP plc in 2003, his last four positions being Chief Geophysicist (1990-1995), Business Unit Leader (General Manager) for first West Africa and then Norway (1995-1999), and finally Head of Exploration until 2003.
He has undertaken asset and company valuation projects for investment banks, hedge funds and small oil companies. He has been a board director of Tullow Oil and Premier Oil.
He holds a Physics degree from the University of Bristol and a Ph.D in Geological Sciences from the University of Birmingham.
Future Energy Partners Ltd Future Energy Partners (FEP) is a unique oil and gas advisory service which prides itself on technic More... | |
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Chris is a Geophysical Consultant at Getech and has over 30 years’ experience in the processing and interpretation of gravity and magnetic data. Following an MSc in Geophysics at the University of Leeds (1983), he worked as a Research Assistant on projects, including crustal-scale seismic modelling, 3D gravity inversion algorithms and developing a seismic workstation to aid identification of small faults in seismic for coal exploration. He was involved with the Getech gravity compilation projects from the beginning (1986) – developing techniques for integrating marine gravity, developing DEMs and calculating gravity terrain corrections. He developed techniques for linking magnetic data sets and managed the integration of surveys to generate the African Magnetic Mapping Project continent-wide grid. Over the following years, he developed processes for displaying gravity and magnetic data in a plate tectonic framework and for processing high-resolution marine gravity data. Additionally, Chris developed a satellite altimeter processing system at Getech and was involved in a series of projects to enhance the data – including reprocessing the raw waveform data. More recently, Chris has been involved in projects to develop gravity and magnetic interpretation methods and to interpret the structure of rifts and continental margins; he also led a major R&D project to enhance the mapping of the Curie Isotherm. Chris was Technical Director of Getech from 2000 to 2007. He completed his PhD on Global Gravity Compilation and its Application to Plate Tectonic Reconstruction in 1997. Chris also lectures in gravity and magnetic methods at the University of Leeds.
Getech For over 25 years, we've been using our data and geoscience expertise to help the oil and mining ind More... | |
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