Paradigm™ Customer Newsletter, Vol.2 Ed.6 December 2009

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Paradigm Introduces New Academic Program Academic institutions play a crucial role in researching and refining our software products. They are also essential to our business because their educators introduce students to the solutions needed to address challenges in the energy industry. We hope to familiarize students with our innovative products so that they can continue as productive users upon entering the workforce. For years we have offered academic institutions limited access to our software. The associated pricing arrangements unfortunately were relatively unstructured and at times confusing. However, we have remedied those shortcomings, and I am very excited to announce that the much anticipated Paradigm Academic Program is now available. We now offer nearly all our commercial products for academic use. Product combinations are packaged into 5 academic bundles for ease of access. Each bundle can be leased annually for a minimal administration fee, with the option to obtain add-on products if desired. Additionally, Paradigm has set up a university grants system to benefit classroom use or qualified research project. If you have any questions or know of colleagues who may be interested in the Paradigm Academic Program, please feel free to contact me. I will be happy to help. Kind Regards, Katherine Harington Global University Coordinator

Greetings from sunny, chilly Houston! The leaves are beginning to change and the temperatures are beginning to cool, but the energy level here at the Paradigm USA Region has been on over-drive. » Paradigm Recent Events This quarter, Paradigm participated in two major industry meetings (SPE ATCE and SEG International Exhibition) and conducted a large scale Technology Forum where Paradigm R&D and geosciences experts showcased the latest innovations in the newly released Rock & Fluid Canvas™ 2009 | Epos® 4.0 software. Along with Paradigm technology innovations, advanced workflows brought new perspectives to imaging, interpreting and modeling in stratigraphic plays, fractured plays, complex fault plays, and salt plays. Paradigm is pleased to reprise these demonstrations at your site with a Technology Day. If you are interested in booking a Technology Day for your asset team, a Paradigm representative is happy to work with you. Simply fill in this online form. » Paradigm On Demand Webinars - Higher Order Workflow Series The 2009 Higher Order Workflow Series came to a close on December 3rd. We thank you for joining us in the Paradigm Visionarium and via the Web. We are pleased to announce that the recorded sessions are now part of the Paradigm Webinars On Demand Higher Order Workflow Series. So, if you missed a H.O.W. session or would like to re-visit the topic, you may register here to request the recordings. For your convenience, the abstracts for 4 of these sessions are listed below: ¤ Salt Interpretation, Modeling and Velocity Model (Grid) Update - Seismic exploration has transitioned from the shelf to the ultra-deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where complex salt structures distort seismic images. The process of interpreting and modeling these complex salt structures is time consuming and iterative. New seismic images from different imaging applications often produce new images and new interpretations of complex salt structures. This presentation demonstrates the simultaneous interpretation and modeling of salt structures supported by a solid model engine. The synchronization of these activities in a common canvas allows for re-use of interpretation and model data as well as rapid updates to the salt structures. This presentation will introduce workflow steps and best practices for Salt Model Building Cycle Time optimization. ¤ The Art of Stratigraphic Volume Imaging for Geomorphologic Interpretation using Paradigm VoxelGeo 2009 - 3D seismic data often contains a wealth of geologic information, mostly hidden in the data as subtle elements of subsurface depositional systems. Key 3D opacity-based methods, that have been refined and tested over the years, are discussed and demonstrated to illustrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the process. The fundamentals of the technology, the strategy of the approach and the procedures of the processes are discussed and illustrated in detail, giving the audience an in-depth understanding of this important exploration method. Discussions on the importance of pattern recognition, imaging tips and ways to improve skills are also presented. ¤ Introducing StratEarth: Integrating Well Log and Seismic Data for Advanced, Dynamic Stratigraphic Interpretation - Paradigm StratEarth is a new product being introduced to bring advanced stratigraphic interpretation capabilities into the Paradigm suite of software. The presentation will focus on innovative workflow elements to illustrate the advanced capabilities of StratEarth, including: • Rapid, graphical construction of correlation sections and traverses using wells and other control points • Rapid, intuitive construction of hierarchical stratigraphic columns for use in correlation • Dynamic linking of well-based cross sections and seismic volumes (in depth or time) to assist in making correlations between wells • Full integration between seismic interpretations (horizons and faults) and well log picks for structural and stratigraphic framework building • Advanced techniques such as seismic flattening for quality control of interpretation. The presentation will highlight the various steps in the process of building and correlating cross sections, highlighting new functionality not previously available in the familiar Paradigm environment. ¤ A new, fast and reliable technique to quantify Kerogen volumes in the Barnett Shale, using Geolog Multimin - A petrophysical analysis of a Barnett Shale interval from a vertical well was performed using a complete set of conventional logs as input to Paradigm Geolog Multimin. An industry accepted yet unconventional approach using GAMMA RAY as an indicator of Kerogen content was firstly applied. Another common analysis methodology was employed to generate a model of the study interval which included Kerogen content, porosity, and gas saturation. The model was further enhanced by including as an input to Multimin, a Kerogen volume curve generated from a modified sonic resistivity overlay technique. The workflow applied in this case study is also applicable to other unconventional shale plays outside the Barnett Shale.

Paradigm Echos 1.0 - New Features and Enhancements The Echos™ 1.0 version of the Paradigm™ Rock & Fluid Canvas™ 2009 | Epos® 4.0 release replaces the former processing system known as Focus. The Echos 1.0 release is a major step forward in the integration efforts with the Epos infrastructure with application code changes to take advantage of today’s modern computers along with new geophysical applications. Echos 1.0 is based on the Paradigm™ Epos® 4.0 data management and interoperability integration framework, and shares many Epos Management Utilities to add and/or remove users and user groups, to manage permissions, to register projects/surveys and tools to backup and restore surveys. Echos 1.0 also resolves memory problems and memory accessibility problems related to 32-bit memory addressing by adapting Fortran 90 standards and supporting 64 bit memory allocation. Fig. 1: 3D SRME, Input on the left, the 3D SRME result in the center and the Multiples eliminated on the right. For Echos 1.0, the Epos 4.0 vertical function repository is implemented and the existing Focus velocity database VELDEFN format is replaced with the new vertical function repository that is common to other Paradigm products. A new interpolation library is introduced, that is much more robust and efficient (run times down from weeks to hours), allows two-key interpolation, handles coordinates with double precision, and has better definition of points that fall outside the model. The Echos online help has been updated to the new Paradigm standard for product documentation. The new help is html based and launched in your browser. The documents may also be viewed as PDF format to facilitate printing of the individual help items. Fig. 2: WEMA – migrated image of the input data at the left with migrated image of the WEMA data after both source and receiver attenuation on the right. Notice the missing multiple energy. The major new geophysical applications are 3D Surface Related Multiple Elimination (3D SRME), a Wave Equation Multiple Attenuation method, Apex Shifted Radon Filtering and a new HiRes Parabolic Radon Filtering method (time domain sparse inversion). 3D SRME is a true multi-threaded application for linux clusters. The application is tolerant of imperfect acquisition geometry and can cope with missing source lines, streamers, shots or receivers. An example of the multiples eliminated is shown in Figure 1. Wave Equation Multiple Attenuation (WEMA) is based on wave field continuation using water depth information and operates in the common shot and/or common receiver domains. This method can cope with irregular or combined gathers and supports both 2D and 3D gathers. An example of WEMA is shown in Figure 2. Fig. 3: a) Synthetic example, b) Real example showing the result of Apex Shifted Radon Transform Filtering. The different sections between the input and output clearly represent the filtered energy in both examples. RADNAPX - Apex shifted Radon Transform Filtering- NMO corrected CDP gathers can be transformed by Radon transform into a 3D space with dimensions of travel time, curvature and apex-shift distance. The non-hyperbolic energy, including the diffracted multiples may be filtered effectively in this domain. Figure 3 presents synthetic and real data examples for Apex Shifted Radon Filtering. Edip Baysal Chief Geophysicist

Epos 4.0 Introduces Volume Curvature and New 3D Propagator Attributes Paradigm has a large portfolio of physical and geometric seismic data attributes that allow our customers to uncover features or properties of seismic data that are not directly visible from seismic amplitude data. Epos 4.0 introduces two attributes, Volume Curvature and new 3D Propagator attributes, that extend this portfolio of interpretation assets. Fig. 1:Coherency on the left and most positive curvature at right. Fault relaying is more apparent in the volume curvature example Surface curvature of various kinds has have been available in Epos- based applications for some time. Surface curvature is a derivative value for any surface but has been commonly used with horizon surfaces as an indicator of spikes and thus a means of threshold editing. Using our sign conventions for curvature, anticlines will yield positive measures of curvature while synclines will yield negative values while saddle like features will yield both positive and negative curvature measures. Curvature can be measured at any point on a surface and at in any direction. Choices if for the direction such as dip, strike, direction of maximum curvature, direction of most positive curvature and choices for averaging or summing curvature in two orthogonal directions yield a large number of different curvature measures. From our current experience we have found that the most positive curvature and the most negative curvature are two of the most useful values. Anticlines and ridges will yield high values for “most positive” curvature. Synclines and troughs will yield high values for most negative curvature. These two measures will help highlight faults, tight folds not yet faulted and channel-levee systems; all of these features are characterized by high surface curvature in one direction and minimal or zero curvature in the orthogonal direction. Most positive and most negative curvature measures will tend to measure curvature adaptively in the direction orthogonal to each of these features. With more experience we may find uses for other curvature measures. For example Gaussian curvature, which is the product of maximum and minimum curvature at a point, may be an indicator of surface changes other than folding. Volume curvature is a volume measure at each point of a volume. The measure is made by fitting a small surface around each sample in the volume and as such it does not require that an interpreted surface is calculated first. Volume curvature may be displayed for a whole volume or sub-volume in a variable opacity voxel style display or for any surface through a volume such as a vertical section, time slice or an interpreted horizon. Because volume curvature will indicate high values at faults or tight folds and reef or channel-levee systems then it too can be used as a fault or fold indicator or an indicator of stratigraphic feature boundaries. In this purpose it should be seen as a complementary product to Coherency Cube. Actual breaks in reflectors are well indicated by coherency measures. Bends in reflectors that are not broken at seismic scale may be indicated by curvature. From above, a normal fault will look like a parallel set of tracks of positive and negative curvature from volumes of that type. A channel –levee system may look like three parallel tracks of positive, negative and positive curvature in its original configuration or possibly tracks of negative, positive and negative curvature if the shaly levees are differentially compacted more than a sand filled channel so that the original configuration is inverted. Coherency and Volume curvature results are displayed in Figure 1. Fig. 2: The number of descendants attribute for a single seed on a channel Interpreters have long known that the direction of propagation in the 3D horizon propagator carries useful information. This used to be witnessed when the propagation results were posted on a base map and computers were much slower than today. We have introduced two attributes that capture and save this information so that it may be displayed and examined. Our propagation starts at a seed point and then propagates in the direction of best correlation as measured from trace shape by our algorithm. This makes our 3D Propagator follow geology rather than expanding from seed points in all directions in the manner of earlier surface picking algorithms. For each point propagated we keep track of the number of algorithmic descendants from this point and the number of picking generations required to reach this point. The number of descendants gives us a measure of the importance of each point in the propagation of the surface. A river provides a simple analogy if you measure the volume of water flowing through a point. As the water swirls around there may be little direct connection of flow between adjacent points so the path of a sample droplet may be uninteresting. If the volume of all such droplets is summed for a point then that will give a good indication of the importance of each point in a watershed. The 3D propagator reverses this flow and starts at the delta, seed point, and flows to fill up the watershed, the propagated surface. The number of ancestor generations gives us an idea of the sequence of propagation. Two adjacent points with differing numbers of ancestors can be indicate totally different ancestry and then indirectly indicate faults, feature boundaries or changes in trace shape caused by lithology or fluids. The power of statistics from large numbers of observations is indicated in Figure 2. A seed was chosen at the deepest part of a channel in a section view at the point indicated by the white arrow, The number of descendants attribute shows the subsequent propagation has picked the thalweg of the channel in a linear fashion while picking the apparent over bank deposits above and to the right and left of the seed in tree like fashion. These attributes may indicate subtle depositional grain in laminar deposits. The data used for both examples is by courtesy of Clyde Petroleum. Huw James Chief Designer, Interpretation Solutions

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