THE RECORD

T H E D E N V E R G E O P H Y S I C A L S O C I E T Y

APRIL 2 0 19 E D I T I O N

IN THIS NEWSLETTER:

25th Anniversary 3D Seismic

Symposium Recap

April Short Course: Introduction to

TIBCO Spotfire – Niobrara Case

April Luncheon: Application of

machine learning to predict oil

production from stochastic AVA

inversion attributes

UPCOMING EVENTS:

April 10th:

Short Course: Introduction to TIBCO

Spotfire – Niobrara Case, 8:00am at

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation

April 11th:

Monthly Luncheon: Application of machine

learning to predict oil production from

stochastic AVA inversion attributes,

11:30am at Wynkoop Brewery

April 17th & 18th:

Denver Advanced Practices in

Unconventional Basins 2019 (DAPUB),

8:00am at Embassy Suites

2019 SPONSORS

Diamond Sponsors

2019 SPONSORS

Platinum Sponsors

2019 SPONSORS

Gold Sponsors

COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES

DEVON ENERGY CORPORATION

GREAT WESTERN OIL & GAS COMPANY

HALLIBURTON

HIGHPOINT RESOURCES

LARIO OIL & GAS COMPANY

MICROSEISMIC INC

RESERVOIR CHARACTERIZATION PROJECT (CSM)

SM ENERGY COMPANY

STEPHENS PRODUCTION COMPANY

TRICON GEOPHYSICS

2019 SPONSORS

Silver Sponsors

AERA ENERGY

BELL & MURPHY AND

ASSOCIATES LLC

BUCKLEY POWDER

CAMINO NATURAL

RESOURCES

CONFLUENCE RESOURCES LP

FLAT GATHERS

GEOPHYSICAL NAVIGATION

SERVICES

HARDIN INTERNATIONAL

PROCESSING INC

INTERACTIVE EARTH

SCIENCES CORPORATION

INTERNATIONAL RESERVOIR

TECHNOLOGIES

LAND SEISMIC NOISE

SPECIALISTS

MACKAY CONSULTING

MEQ GEO INC

MSRP GEOCONSULTING

NANOSEIS

OASIS PETROLEUM

RCP

SHALEPROFILE

ST. CROIX GROUP

TENAX GEOSCIENCE

2019 SPONSORS

Specialty Sponsors

2019 SPONSORS

Specialty Sponsors

Silver Anniversary Recap By Sarah Gach, Morgan Brown and Julie Shemeta

25 years?! Where has the time gone? The silver anniversary Symposium, themed “3D Seismic

Symposium Silver Anniversary”, returned for a second year to the Ellie Caulkins Opera House,

and boasted 417 attendees, 75% of whom work on the E&P side of geophysics. A whopping 26

companies (up from 18 in 2018) exhibited at this year’s Symposium, and the organizing

committee was forced to turn a few companies away at the last minute. Our generous corporate

and individual sponsors contributed $47,500 toward the costs of the Symposium. The Denver

Geophysical Society (DGS) hosts the Symposium, and it is DGS’s primary fundraiser for the

year. The officers of the DGS appreciate the geophysical community’s continued generous

support!

To celebrate our 25th anniversary, the Symposium committee decided to host an icebreaker and

the annual Student Challenge Bowl on the Monday night before the main event. Roughly 50

attendees watched six teams from CU-Boulder, Colorado School of Mines, and BYU duke it

out. The top three teams were all from Colorado School of Mines, and CSM’s Youfang Liu and

Adam Tuppen winning money toward a trip to the 2019 SEG conference in San Antonio, Texas

this fall. The icebreaker event following the Student Challenge Bowl boasted an open bar and

generous appetizers – the students and attendees went home well-fed and networked! Peter

Duncan of Microseismic Inc. provided the game-show type questions and buzzers and Scott

Cook expertly MC’ed the evening.

The kickoff speaker, Dr. Joe Davis of Kalnin Ventures, outlined his petroleum system-based

methodology for risking unconventional plays in his talk Defining Unconventional Sweet Spots.

Chris Wright, CEO and Chairman of Liberty Oilfield Services, Executive Chairman of Liberty

Resources, and founder of microseismic pioneer Pinnacle Technologies, inspired the lunchtime

crowd with a justification for the oil & gas industry’s place in the world…and geophysicists’

place in the industry. For anyone interested his presentation, a similar talk titled “The intimate

link between health and hydrocarbons” that Chris gave in Dallas can be viewed at

https://youtu.be/61Q5NEHJ1lw

Several presenters highlighted processing, interpretation, and drilling in complex geology:

overthrust depth imaging in Beaver Creek Field, Wyoming from Devon Energy’s Robert

Horine, high-angle Marcellus geosteering in Lycoming County, Pennsylvania from Bob Grundy

of Inflection Energy, and a SCOOP acquisition and processing case study in the Oklahoma

SCOOP play from Chuck Diggins of DUG.

Two presenters took the audience to the San Joaquin Valley of California. California Resources

Corporation’s Darren Williams highlighted how integrated geophysical technology can derisk

unconventional reservoirs, while Chad Severson of Aera Energy demonstrated how seismic

attributes delineated tectonically controlled submarine channels in a deep exploration play.

Multiple aspects and scales of the Permian Basin were on show throughout the program. In the

Midland Basin, Aaron Fisher, of Tracker Resource Development, outlined how 3D seismic

mapped rock quality and optimal landing targets on Tracker’s acreage. QEP’s Cory Christie

and Jill Thompson presented a case study highlighting how seismic attributes can identify zones

prone to “Frac Hits”, or interference between adjacent horizontal wells. Patrick Rutty of

DrillingInfo presented a predictive analytics case study from the Midland Basin which showed

(much to the relief of the audience!) that 3D seismic definitively adds value in optimized

unconventional field development. Andrew Lewis of Fairfield Technologies and Simpon Payne

of IKON took the audience west, to the Delaware Basin, where he presented a seismic rock

physics characterization. Scott Cook of Tricon Geophysics and Mike McKee of Jetta Permian

LP demonstrated how HTI fracture analysis highlighted drilling hazards on Jetta’s acreage.

As the use of fiber continues to gain traction in the industry, two presentations discussed

various applications of distributed acoustic sensing (DAS). Ge Jin, ConocoPhillips, highlighted

the value of different frequency ranges of DAS data for well spacing and completion design

optimization. Gary Binder, of Colorado School of Mines, discussed the value of incorporating

time-lapse vertical seismic profiling (VSP) and DAS data together to identify stress induced

velocity changes.

A follow up survey on the meeting revealed attendees thought this year’s meeting was

“Excellent” (46%, 77 votes) or Very Good (38%, 63 votes). The new Opera House location was

voted a big success with 66% voting “Excellent” (99 votes). 97% of the survey responders (143

votes) said they would attend the meeting next year.

The 2019 R. Randy Ray Best Speaker Award was presented to QEP’s Cory Christie and Jill

Thompson for their “Frac Hits in the Midland Basin: a case study using geophysical

applications to identify and minimize well interference”

The symposium was chaired this year by Angie Southcott and Brad Birkelo. Angie, who was

recently elected Vice President of the DGS, has relinquished her chairmanship to focus on her

DGS duties. She’ll be replaced by Simon Cole. A huge key to the Symposium’s ongoing

success is the high level of commitment and longevity of the Symposium committee.

Committee members, past and present, who served more than a decade, were recognized with

awards.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge Kyrie Encinas, Executive Director of the DGS, who has

been the steady guiding force and “glue” that held this year’s 3D Seismic Symposium meeting

together. The 2019 Symposium was Kyrie’s third since assuming the mantel of DGS Executive

Director, and it was clear to all observers that she’s really gotten the hang of it!

Picture 1: Kickoff Address: Defining Unconventional Sweet Spots with 3D by Joseph R. Davis from Kalnin

Ventures - Photo courtesy of Dave Purcell – Ski U L8r Photography

Picture 2: Beautiful venue Ellie Caulkins Opera House hosted 417 attendees - Photo courtesy of Dave Purcell –

Ski U L8r Photography

Picture 3: 26 companies exhibited at this year’s Symposium - Photo courtesy of Dave Purcell – Ski U L8r

Photography

Picture 4: Attendees enjoying lunch during the symposium - Photo courtesy of Dave Purcell – Ski U L8r

Photography

Picture 5: Keynote speaker Chris Wright, Liberty Oilfield Services CEO, during his talk

“The Intimate link between health and hydrocarbons” - Photo courtesy of Dave Purcell – Ski U L8r

Photography

Picture 6: Cory Christie and Jill Thompson from QEP holding their 2019 R. Randy Ray Best Speaker Award

for their talk “Frac Hits in the Midland Basin: a case study using geophysical applications to identify and

minimize well interference” - Photo courtesy of Dave Purcell – Ski U L8r Photography

April Short Course

Introduction to TIBCO Spotfire – Niobrara Case

By Bryan McDowell of Discovery Natural Resources

April 10th, 2019 at

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation - 1099 18th St., Denver, CO 80202

Class begins at 8:00 am until 5:00pm

Who should attend?

Oil and gas professionals (geoscientists, engineers, etc.) interested in compiling, filtering, and

visualizing data quickly and effectively

Learning Outcomes

Users will build a simple production database and interactive bubble map of the Niobrara

Formation in the DJ Basin by:

• Importing spreadsheets and shapefiles into Spotfire

• Creating data visualizations including pie charts, bar charts, line charts, and maps

• Performing IP and Cum Volume calculations using simple equations, case statements,

and OVER functions

• Drafting summary tables using data categories and filters

• Exporting data and visualizations to Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint

Course Description

This hands-on course will introduce TIBCO Spotfire features relevant for oil and gas

professionals. Participants will learn the fundamentals of importing data, creating

visualizations, calculating custom properties, and exporting results by building a simple

production database and interactive bubble map of the Niobrara Formation in the DJ Basin. By

the end of the course, participants will be able to create: (1) Rate-Time and Cum-Time bar,

scatter, and line charts; (2) summary tables by well, operator, township, and county; (3) IP and

Cum Volume bubble maps with GOR indicators; and (5) rules-of-thumb for exporting quick,

readable visualizations for Microsoft PowerPoint.

The Instructor

Bryan McDowell is a reservoir engineer at Discovery Natural Resources and a Ph.D. candidate

at Colorado School of Mines. He recently received his Master’s in Petroleum Engineering and

will be completing his Ph.D. in Geology in Fall 2018. Bryan specializes in integrating geologic

and engineering data sets for a fuller understanding on productivity controls in unconventional

reservoirs. He has utilized Spotfire for three years as a platform for a wide variety of projects

including helium exploration, ammonite localities, production databases, rate transient analysis,

tracer tests, and well interference.

April Monthly Luncheon

Application of machine learning to predict oil

production from stochastic AVA inversion

attributes

Presented by Hayden Powers of Colorado School of

Mines Co-Authors: W. Trainor-Guitton1, and G. Michael Hoversten2

Colorado School of Mines1, Chevron2

April 11th, 2019 at

Wynkoop Brewery - 1634 18th St., Denver, CO 80202

Registration starts at 11:30am

Talk starts promptly at 12:00 pm

The focus of our work is to use machine learning, specifically a Naive Bayes Classifier (NBC),

Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS), and a simple Artificial Neural Network (ANN), to classify

and predict oil production from stochastic AVA inversion attributes. The output attributes of the

inversion include density, porosity, Vp/Vs, and p-impedance. The inversion generates hundreds

to thousands of samples from the converged chain for every model location. These attribute

samples are clipped to be within a defined radius of each wellbore and are then used to train and

classify the NBC and ANN. The algorithm cross validates by testing all combinations of wells,

based on the number omitted. The results of the cross validation are evaluated using MDS to

understand why wells are predicted correctly or incorrectly. MDS is valuable because it

incorporates an understanding of similarity between 3D structures around the individual

wellbores.

This analysis was done on both the SEAM Life of Field Model (SEAM) and a field dataset

from offshore West Africa (WAF). SEAM has 11 producing wells, while WAF only has 3.

Three data points is insufficient to running a cross validation, so the training set for WAF is

extended to include the 3 injecting wells as pseudo-producers. The results for WAF using the

NBC are more accurate than SEAM, showing validity in the extension of the dataset. The NBC

also struggles near the fault blocks of SEAM, where the covariance in the inversion most likely

extends past the fault planes. Lastly, the ANN has yet to be applied to WAF, but the early

results show improvement over the NBC for SEAM. The ANN does a binary prediction of high

and low producing which is the most comparable to the NBC. However, once there is more

confidence in the predictions, this will be changed to a continuous cumulative oil prediction.

The final product is determining and using the optimal parameters from the two supervised

methods of the entire reservoir to predict high grade drilling locations and give an uncertainty

measurement to those predictions.

THANK YOU TO THE CURRENT DGS ANNUAL

SPONSORS!

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