Colorado School of Mines

The Colorado School of Mines Geophysics Department conducts research in numerous areas mostly related to, but not restricted to, applied geophysics. Through a variety of research centers and projects, faculty and graduate students from the Department of Geophysics work closely with industry to develop interdisciplinary approaches for solving geoscience and geo-engineering problems.

Reservoir Characterization Project (RCP)

The Colorado School of Mines Reservoir Characterization Project (RCP) is an independently sponsored research consortium whose mission is to develop and apply 4D, multi-component seismology and associated technologies to effectively model complex reservoirs. Through the consortium, the group has established a leading-edge interdisciplinary research and teaching program which fosters industry and university interaction and provides cost effective, collaborative research. The research benefits consortium members, and trains undergraduate and graduate students for employment in the oil and gas industry – while guiding industry in the responsible and efficient management of its economic base of natural resources.

Paradigm participates in the CSM RCP (Reservoir Characterization Project) consortium, a group dedicated to using technology to understand and produce reservoirs more effectively in order to extend the life of precious resources.

Center for Wave Phenomena (CWP)

The Center for Wave Phenomena (CWP) is an interdisciplinary research and graduate education program in seismic exploration, monitoring and wave propagation.  The main focus areas of CWP research are: Seismic modeling, imaging and inversion methods, as well as on improving the accuracy and efficiency of seismic processing algorithms, especially for application to regions of structural complexity.

Paradigm belongs to a group of leading industry organizations that sponsor the CWP, enabling the performance of academically-current, industry-relevant research projects.

Energistics

Energistics is a global, membership-sponsored consortium that facilitates an inclusive user community for the development, deployment and maintenance of collaborative technologies using open data exchange standards for the upstream oil and natural gas industry. Paradigm participates in the WITSML SIG for drilling information transfer and the RESCUE format (formerly POSC) group for reservoir simulation support. 

Data Store Solutions (DSS) Group of the Data Management SIG
This is the Special Interest Group associated with E&P data management procedures, products, and services. Through an initial focus on data management and store solutions for E&P studies and projects, current broader focus of this SIG includes many reference data standards, units of measure standards, coordinate reference system standards, reference data models, document and digital data cataloguing standards (taxonomy), and global unique well identifier standards.

Practical Well Log Standards (PWLS) Group of the Geology SIG
The initial focus of the Geology SIG was well log classification standards known as the Practical Well Log Standards (PWLS). This SIG currently has a broader focus on geological data and work processes and standards, including PWLS, WITSML well log data exchange standard, LogGraphicsML well log representation data exchange standard, DLIS well log binary format, RP66 basic exchange format, and the open source utility that convert LAS well log data to WITSML well log data.

RESQML
The RESQML group serves a similar purpose in the area of reservoir upscaling specifications and shared software. Participants include operators and software suppliers. The organization provides RESQML with a legal framework, office services, and with project management services. Technical strategy is self-directed.

WITSML
The WITSML SIG is the Special Interest Group associated with drilling data and work processes and with the family of WITSML Standards. The primary focus of the WITSML SIG is on standards for wellsite to office data transfer called the Wellsite Information Transfer Standard Markup Language (WITSML). Currently, the WITSML SIG is also the focal point for ensuring proper coordination for all WITSML-based Standards from both a data and infrastructure viewpoint. The WITMSL SIG sponsors in-person working meetings and a public seminar with vendor exhibition every six months.

GOCAD^® Consortium

Formed in 1989, the GOCAD Research Consortium is an international group of universities and industries interested in advancing the science of geomodeling. The goal of the Consortium is to develop a new approach to geomodeling for use in the oil and gas, mining and environmental industries thus driving technology development. Today, the GOCAD Research Consortium includes 22 companies and 87 universities that use GOCAD predominantly for exploration and production modeling in the oil and gas industry.

The primary purpose of the Consortium is to provide financial support and hands-on control of the research activities performed within the frame of the GOCAD project. Direct interaction with sponsors allows the Consortium to focus on problems directly linked to the industry and develop new algorithms to model the sub-surface geometry and properties more accurately. The Consortium is currently exploring and delivering new prototypes of modeling tools within Base Module plug-ins. All the tools developed by the Consortium have been provided to all members of the consortium, and all sponsors have access to the "non-intrusive" source code developed by the Consortium.

Paradigm is a member of the GOCAD Consortium and has an exclusive contract for the maintenance, development and commercialization of the GOCAD software kernel. Paradigm's mission is to continually improve the source code and to integrate these new tools inside the official version of the GOCAD software called the "GOCAD software kernel." GOCAD research is done using Paradigm GOCAD software, thus facilitating the commercialization of prototypes created by the Consortium.

PPDM

Stanford University

The Stanford University School of Earth Sciences is one of three schools at Stanford awarding both graduate and undergraduate degrees. It is composed of four departments and three interdisciplinary academic and research programs. The Department of Geophysics is regularly ranked among the top three or four geophysics programs in the United States.

Stanford Center for Reservoir Forecasting (SCRF)

Paradigm participates at the Stanford Center, an industry funded academic consortium dedicated to the general problem of reservoir characterization and reservoir performance forecasting.

The Stanford Center for Reservoir Forecasting (SCRF) is an industrial affiliates program in the Energy Resources Engineering Department of the School of Earth Sciences at Stanford University. SCRF was initiated in 1988 to further the development and integration of geological, geophysical and reservoir engineering data and techniques for forecasting reservoir performance. The nature and extent of the SCRF affiliates program allows for paradigm-changing research in the field of geostatistics and numerical reservoir modeling. Unbound by the limited extent of project-based research with its short-term deadlines and limited scope, a long-term perspective has lead to revolutionary changes in reservoir modeling, amongst which: the introduction of stochastic simulation in reservoir modeling, GSLIB as a standard geostatistical software package, the advent of multiple-point geostatistics, practical solutions for large-scale inverse problems with geological constraints, an open-source software termed S-GEMS, techniques for modeling uncertainty. The funding mechanism of SCRF has created a long-term think-tank where a group of faculty, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, visiting scholars and industry experts come together to tackle problems of first-order importance in quantitative modeling of space-time varying phenomenon and its applications in reservoir modeling.

Stanford University Petroleum Research Institute SUPRI-B: Reservoir Simulation
Paradigm participates at the Stanford University Petroleum Research Institute SUPRI-B: Reservoir Simulation consortium for and benefits from leading research dedicated to the development of techniques that enhance the value of reservoir simulation technology.

The SUPRI-B reservoir simulation consortia focuses on the art, science and engineering of modeling flow and transport processes in porous media, including oil and gas reservoirs and aquifers. It is a core competency and a primary tool for making reservoir management decisions. Reservoir simulation includes the development and implementation of efficient numerical techniques for accurate solution of the equations governing multi-component, multiphase flow in natural porous media. Reservoir simulation includes detailed modeling of wellbore flow, accurate representation of advanced wells, and integration of the reservoir model with production facilities. Reservoir simulation is also used to quantify the uncertainty associated with performance predictions. It is also expanding to include history matching and optimization of the entire system in the presence of uncertainty.

University of Alberta

The University of Alberta School of Mining and Petroleum Engineering in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, is dedicated to excellence in the discovery, dissemination and application of knowledge about mining and petroleum engineering—the search for mineral / hydrocarbon reserves and their production in an efficient and environmentally-responsible manner and is a leader in educating top quality engineers for the Mining and Petroleum industries.

Centre for Computational Geostatistics (CCG)
Paradigm participates as a member of the CCG at the University of Alberta in a consortia advancing the development and application of geospatial and geostatistical modeling technologies.

The University of Alberta Centre for Computational Geostatistics (CCG) involves over 15 member companies ranging from very large, international organizations, smaller companies operating regionally. The CCG has a vision to lead in educaiotn and research of geostatistics and development of tools which equip people to build high quality geostatistical models that realistically reflect natural heterogeneity and accurately measure uncertainty through fundamental principles of constructed numerical spatial models.

University of Houston and Colorado School of Mines

Working together, the University of Houston and the Colorado School of Mines run the Center for Rock Abuse (CSM) and the Rock Physics Laboratory (UH) exploring rock and fluid dynamics. The Colorado School of Mines Geophysics Department and the University of Houston Geosciences Department conduct research in a wide variety of areas and both work closely with industry and to develop interdisciplinary approaches for solving geoscience and geo-engineering problems.

Fluid/DHI Consortium
Paradigm participates in the Fluid/DHI (direct hydrocarbon indicators) consortium, dedicated to researching rock and fluid properties for exploration and reservoir monitoring with emphasis on fluid distributions in rocks and how these distributions affect characteristics such as wave attenuation, velocity dispersion and seismic signature.

Fluid Properties project explores technology solutions to measure, tabulate and understand general pore fluid properties for geophysical applications in traditional fluid and heavy oil exploration and reserve assessment. Direct hydrocarbon indicators and reservoir monitoring, or time-lapse seismology (4-D) are becoming increasingly important in geophysics. Identification of specific fluids or fluid locations is the goal. As fluid types differ, phase changes occur even in constant composition systems. Phase changes, for example changing from a single super-critical fluid to an oil-gas mixture, may produce a strong seismic signature. We must know enough about the changing conditions to plan the acquisition and correctly interpret the results.

SKUA®-GOCAD® provides a direct link to Geovariances’s geostatistical package Isatis. At each stage of a project, SKUA-GOCAD users may seamlessly exchange data between the two software platforms, and benefit from both Isatis advanced geostatistics and SKUA-GOCAD advanced structural modeling and gridding technologies, improving the accuracy of earth models.

IFP Energies Nouvelles (IFPEN)

IFPEN has been committed to seeing the outcome of its research exploited by industry. IFPEN aids the conversion from invention to innovation, from patent to product and from research to industry. Since its inception, IFPEN has therefore been a driving force for industrial development, with more than 40,000 patents to its credit filled in France and throughout the world (including more than 12,700 active patents).

Paradigm and IFPEN have partnered to deliver key technology to the industry, including Kine3D - the 3D and 2D restoration functionality available in our subsurface modeling offering, and the Constrained Stratigraphic Inversion functionality in our inversion offering.

1. Additional product configurations are available on request.
2. Membership to the GOCAD Consortium is required to access Paradigm GOCAD and SKUA products. For more information, please contact Elisabeth Mouillie.
3. SKUA certification of university staff is necessary to access SKUA products.
4. GOCAD Developer Kit license can be added.

For information on any of the above notes, please contact Katherine Harington, Global University Coordinator.

In addition to the Academic Software Program, Paradigm offers a university grant program for classroom use or for qualified research project use. Applications are available upon request.