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Colorado School of Mines
The Colorado School of Mines Geophysics Department conducts research in a wide variety of 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)
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.
The Colorado School of Mines Reservoir Characterization Project (RCP) is an independently sponsored research consortium whose mission is to develop and apply 4-D, 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. |
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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.
RESCUE
The RESCUE group serves a similar purpose in the area of reservoir upscaling specifications and shared software. Participants include operators and software suppliers. The organization provides RESCUE 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.
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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. |
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IFP
IFP is a world-class public-sector research and training center, aimed at developing the technologies and materials of the future in fields of energy, transport and the environment. It provides public players and industry with innovative solutions for a smooth transition to the energies and materials of tomorrow – more efficient, more economical, cleaner and sustainable. IFP fosters knowledge transfers between long-term fundamental research, applied research and industrial development.
IFP has been committed to seeing the outcome of its research exploited by industry. IFP aids the conversion from invention to innovation, from patent to product and from research to industry. Since its inception, IFP 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). |
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OpenSpirit
OpenSpirit® is an independent software company focused on providing integration solutions for upstream applications and data. The OpenSpirit application integration framework allows interoperability between multiple vendors' applications and data, enabling oil company end users to speed up critical work flows and enhance analysis in the geotechnical space. |
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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 Exploration Project (SEP)
Paradigm participates in the SEP (Stanford Exploration Project) consortium, an industry funded academic group dedicated to improving the theory and practice of constructing 3-D and 4-D images of the earth from seismic echo soundings.
Most research is targeted at improvements in the geophysical survey contracting industry, and about half of the sponsors and alumni are in the petroleum industry because the focus of the consortium is on overcoming technological limitations of the geophysical survey industry. SEP pioneered innovations in migration imaging, velocity estimation, dip move-out and slant stack. Today’s focus is on 3-D seismic applications such as velocity estimation, wavefield-continuation prestack migration, multidimensional image estimation, and 4-D (time-lapse) reservoir monitoring.
Besides 3-D reflection seismic data, the consortium undertakes small 2-D imaging projects with geophysical data of all kinds. The diversity of applications exercises our judgment and skill at combining fundamentals of statistical signal theory, optimization theory, numerical analysis, and wave propagation theory, and this has led to numerous improvements and breakthroughs. The consortium organizes research to facilitate technology transfer by using a formal method of make-file rules. This way, most research results are verified by outside research.
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. |
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TerraSpark Geosciences
Through its industry experience, geoscience expertise and computer science skills, TerraSpark helps create software breakthroughs that lead to better exploration and production decisions - enabling the discovery and development of reserves with higher profitability and a higher probability of success.
Geoscience Interpretation Visualization Consortium (GIVC)
Paradigm participates in the Geoscience Interpretation Visualization Consortium, a group dedicated to developing the role of visualization and immersive visualization in the interpretation process including new structural and stratigraphic interpretation techniques and algorithms.
The Geoscience Interpretation Visualization Consortium is focused on computer aided stratigraphic interpretation of seismic volumes. In its first few years, the consortium is conducting research to develop processes and techniques for semi-automatic and automatic interpretation of depositional systems. The Geoscience Interpretation Visualization Consortium, which began in 2003, is conducting R&D to develop a process for semi-automatic extraction of channels, reefs, and other depositional features from seismic volumes. This process consists of: Data Conditioning, Automatic Fault Extraction, Stratal-slice Transformation of the seismic volume, Imaging Depositional Systems, Extraction and Analysis of Depositional Systems, Geobody Bounding Surface creation, Inverse Stratal-slice Transformation of the bounding surface. |
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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 Aniversity 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. |
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University of California Santa Cruz
The Earth and Planetary Sciences program at UC Santa Cruz is ranked among the top 20 Earth Sciences programs in the United States (US News & World Report, 2006). It is also one of the three largest undergraduate Earth Sciences programs in the United States.
WTOPI Project
Paradigm participates in the WTOPI (Wavelet Transform on Propagation and Imaging) program of the University of California, Santa Cruz Earth & Planetary Sciences department. Together with the consortium, Paradigm is pursuing development and theory algorithms of wave propagation and imaging in the wavelet domain for direct applications to compressed seismic data with an imaging emphasis on general screen propagators.
The objective of this consortium is to develop the theory and algorithms of wave propagation and imaging in the wavelet domain for direct application to compressed seismic data. Consortium members strive to find optimum algorithms for both compression and processing of which imaging is the heart. The newly developed fast wavelet transform (WT) is considered to be a revolutionary breakthrough in signal analysis/processing. In the same time frame, there has been significant progress in one-way wave propagation theory and algorithms, including the recently developed fast acoustic and elastic generalized screen propagators from our group. The group will further apply the wavelet transform to the generalized screen or other one-way wave propagation methods to develop efficient 3D imaging and modeling methods. The cross-breeding of these two new developments has the potential of revolutionizing modeling and imaging techniques for complex Earth media. |
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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. |
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