Education

CSEG DoodleTrain

Geophysical Characterization of Heavy Oil Reservoirs

Instructor: Larry Lines / Satinder Chopra
Date: November 5, 2010
Duration: 1 day
Members (early bird/price): $350/$450 CDN (plus GST)
Non-Members (early bird/price): $400/$500 CDN (plus GST)

Venue: Devon, Room 308, 3rd floor – 2000, 400 - 3rd Ave SW
Time: 8:00am - 5:00pm

Course Description:

With the conventional hydrocarbon resources growing thinner, heavy oil and bitumen are being looked at as the next resource that could be exploited in the near future. As both heavy oil and bitumen are a global resource, they are fast becoming an asset base for many energy companies. Economical development of heavy oil reservoir requires accurate characterization of the rocks as well as the fluids contained therein. As heavy oil properties are different from conventional oil, its exploration and production requires special seismic strategies and rock physics models. Geophysical characterization of heavy oil reservoirs is therefore at the heart of production of this resource.

Course Outline:

  • Mechanisms for the formation of heavy oil
  • General phase behavior of hydrocarbons and heavy oil
  • Properties of heavy oil and rock physics analysis
  • Geophysical approaches to characterization of heavy oil reservoirs
  • Measuring and monitoring heavy oil properties
  • Methods of extraction of heavy oil (CHOPS, SAGD, etc.)
  • Challenges for heavy oil production

Who Should Attend?

  • Seismic interpreters who wish to extract meaningful information from their data
  • Seismic processors who want to find out different ways to characterize heavy oil formations
  • Stratigraphers and structure geologists who use 3D seismic volumes to prepare detailed reservoir models
  • Reservoir engineers who want to understand about the seismic input to add detail to 3D reservoir models

To use it as their reference, the participants will be able to take home a book entitled 'Heavy Oils – Reservoir Characterization and Production Monitoring', published by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG).

Presenter / Instructor Biography:

Satinder Chopra
Satinder Chopra received M.Sc. and M.Phil. degrees in physics from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla, India. He joined the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) of India in 1984 and served there till 1997. In 1998 he joined CTC Pulsonic at Calgary, which later became Scott Pickford and Core Laboratories Reservoir Technologies. Currently, he is working as Manager, Reservoir Services at Arcis Corporation, Calgary.

In the last 25 years Satinder has worked in regular seismic processing, and interactive interpretation, but has spent more time in special processing of seismic data involving seismic attributes including coherence and textures, seismic inversion, AVO, VSP processing and frequency enhancement of seismic data. His research interests focus on techniques that are aimed at characterization of reservoirs. He has published 5 books and more than 175 papers and abstracts and likes to make presentations at any beckoning opportunity. He is the Chief Editor of the CSEG RECORDER, past – member of the SEG 'The Leading Edge' Editorial Board, and the Ex-Chairman of the SEG Publications Committee. He received the AAPG Award of Excellence 'Top Ten' Poster Presentation for his poster presented at the 2009 AAPG Annual Meeting at Denver. Of the 3 presentations (1 oral, 2 posters) that he made at the 2008 SEG Convention at Las Vegas, Nevada, all three were ranked among the top 30 presented at the SEG Meeting. He received several awards at ONGC, and more recently has received the 'Best Poster' Award for his paper entitled 'Seismic attributes for fault/fracture characterization', presented at the 2007 SEG Convention held at San Antonio. He received the 'Best Paper' Award for his paper entitled 'Curvature and Iconic Coherence – Attributes adding value to 3D Seismic Data Interpretation' presented at the CSEG Technical Luncheon, Calgary, in January 2007 as well as the 2005 CSEG Meritorious Services Award. He and his colleagues have received the CSEG Best Poster Awards in successive years from 2002 to 2005. He is a member of SEG, CSEG, CSPG, CHOA, EAGE, AAPG, APEGGA (Association of Professional Engineers, Geologists and Geophysicists of Alberta) and TBPG (Texas Board of Professional Geoscientists).

Larry Lines
Laurence "Larry" Lines received B.Sc. and M.Sc. geophysics degrees from the University of Alberta (1971, 1973) and a Ph.D. in geophysics from the University of British Columbia (1976). His industrial career included 17 years with Amoco in Calgary and Tulsa (1976-1993). Following a career in industry, Dr. Lines held the NSERC/Petro-Canada Chair in Applied Seismology at Memorial University of Newfoundland (1993-1997) and the Chair in Exploration Geophysics at the University of Calgary (1997-2002). From 2002-2007, he served as the Head, Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Calgary. In professional service, Larry has served the SEG as Geophysics Editor (1977-99), Distinguished Lecturer, Geophysics Associate Editor, Translations Editor, Publications Chairman, and as a member of The Leading Edge Editorial Board. Larry was the President of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) in 2008-2009. He served the CSEG as Editor and Associate Editor. Larry and co-authors have won the SEG's Best Paper in Geophysics Award twice (1988, 1995) and have twice won Honorable Mention for Best Paper (1986,1998). Larry is an Honorary Member of SEG, CSEG, and the Geophysical Society of Tulsa; additionally, he is a member of APEGGA, CGU, EAGE, and AAPG. Larry is married with two children, and enjoys hobbies of choir, softball, and hiking with his Alaskan malamute.