Join the Global Reinterpretation Project
I need your help.
I need you to become a research associate in “The Global Reinterpretation Project”, the most global and unheralded but most important research project in the history of exploration for oil and gas.
The project has three goals:
- To discover what seismic can tell us about the subsurface.
- To let the exploration industry know what we find.
- To convince every company in the industry to reexamine and reinterpret every 2D line and 3D survey in their library.
Becoming a research associate is easy and will only require a few minutes of your time each day. It will be both educational and enjoyable. To get started, all you need to do is this:
- Go to our website and download and install our StratiScape software.
- Download our first two research projects.
- Use your experience to examine the seismic as closely as you can.
- Report what you find to our HVRI Research Community on Mattermost.
By becoming an active research associate you will help us dismantle the industry’s misconceptions of what seismic is and what it is capable of. We are going to turn the exploration industry on its head. How much more fun can you have than that?
Now let me explain why we need to do it.
The word ‘bizarre’ hardly captures the situation explorationists find themselves in today. Our ability to find the hydrocarbons the world relies on is heavily dependent on the subsurface information we can extract from seismic data. Seismic data is the backbone of any exploration project.
We obsess over it to the extent that we spend hundreds of millions of dollars acquiring it and tens of millions processing it. We are even prepared to wait years, if necessary, from the moment we decide we need it to the moment we finally have it.
So, what is so bizarre about that? The answer lies in the fact that once we receive seismic data, we do not work with it in its native form. In its native form, seismic data creates a three-dimensional surface with seismic amplitudes shaping the terrain.
However, due to technological limitations in the early days of seismic exploration, we have never worked with that surface. This means that no one in the history of digital seismic exploration truly knows what seismic data looks like or what it is capable of.”
The word bizarre hardly covers it!
I can and will teach you what seismic looks like in its native form. However, I need your help to uncover its true potential. I can already show that it is capable of far more than we currently believe. As for the specifics of what it all means… that is up to you.
If you are reading this post, I assume that you are well acquainted with seismic and might take exception to the idea that you have never worked with it directly. If you do take exception, then I don’t blame you. After all, you may have interpreted seismic for years or even decades. Who am I to suggest that you have no idea what it is and what looks like?
With all your experience, you might say, “of course I know what seismic looks like. It looks like either Figure 1 or Figure 2.” If you said that, nobody would blame you for it or suggest you were wrong. But everyone else is in the same position that you are. These are the only displays they have used. So let me ask you: Are you sure that these images are showing you seismic data and not some derivative attribute of it?
Expand each image in turn and examine them carefully. Then ask yourself what you are really looking at?
Figure 1 is a grayscale display, initially developed by Amoco in the late 1960s. The fact is, when you view this display, you are not seeing the seismic data itself. Instead, you are looking at seismic data that has been converted into a few dull shades of grey.
Figure 2 is a typical variable density display that was developed originally in 1979. Once again, when you view this display, you are not seeing the seismic data itself. Instead, you are looking at seismic data that has been converted into blobs of colour.
In both instances, you are not viewing the seismic data itself. Instead, you are looking at either the seismic grey attribute or the seismic colour attribute. This is the best way to think of them. Both displays are seismic attribute displays, and the only reason we still use them is because we developed digital seismic data during what was, at least for visualization, the technological dark ages.
In the 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s, and 1990’s, the attribute displays were the only viable way of looking at seismic data. However, beginning in the early 2000’s, new technologies emerged, allowing us to move beyond attributes and work directly with seismic data as it was always meant to be.
Figure 3 showcases a StratiScape display of the same seismic data data shown above. This is what seismic data itself looks like, and it is entirely different from the attribute displays you are accustomed to.
Now that we have the technology to visualize and work directly with seismic data, it is imperative that we use it and, like all earlier technologies, learn to exploit it to its fullest extent.
The first step, specifically using StratiScape, is the easy part. You can start using it today at almost no cost in exploration terms. The challenging part is overcoming our mistaken preconceptions about what seismic can reveal about the subsurface.
StratiScape displays are not simply a new seismic display; they are the first true seismic display. They allow explorationists to see every subtle nuance of their seismic data, revealing things about the subsurface that it will take years, and a global effort, to fully appreciate and understand.
We are now embarking on the next great seismic transition.
The first transition occurred in the 1960s when we moved from analog to digital seismic. The second took place in the 1980s with the shift from 2D to 3D seismic. Now, we are transitioning from working with seismic attributes to directly engaging with seismic data itself.
As with all significant transitions, this one will be driven not by a single individual but by a community of dedicated, progressive, and adventurous individuals ready to challenge the status quo.
My question to you is: Are you one of those individuals who are not only willing but driven to push the boundaries? If so, I need your help.
StratiScape is backed by sciences and technologies that I have personally developed. I created the software, redeveloped StratiScape as a plugin for Petrel, and compiled example datasets from basins worldwide.
However, proving to the exploration industry what seismic is truly capable of is not something I can achieve alone. The industry needs to know, and society depends on us to find out.
This is a task that requires more than one person.
I am looking to build a community of committed, professional explorationists, like yourself, who can dedicate a few minutes each day to examine seismic data from a fresh perspective and share their findings. If this sounds like you, and you want to be an early and significant contributor to one of the most important research projects in exploration history, start now.
Download StratiScape and our first research projects and discover what you can find.
Contact Us
We are located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada and are on Mountain Standard Time.
steve.lynch@stratiscape.com