From the President

Dick Merkel
EnCana

In preparation for the final meeting in the DWLS yearly cycle, I can only think that this has been a good year for our organization; meeting attendance was up, membership was up, and the two workshops were filled to capacity. Your current Board of Directors (who will be replaced in a few weeks) needs to take the credit for our accomplishments. With the current heavy activity in our business, carving out time for volunteer work is not easy and often requires valuable time lost with family and friends. I want to thank the members of the BOD for their time and devotion for the past year. Little, if any of our accomplishments could have been made without the joint effort of this group.

Like other institutions we know, we are an organization of the people, by the people, and for the people. As a result, credit also needs to be extended to each DWLS member and to our speakers for our success. In parting, I would ask that you continue to participate with the new BOD in this upcoming year as you did with the current Board in order to keep a strong DWLS.

From the Editor

Dominic Holmes
Digital Formation

Just a quick reminder to submit your ballot for the 2008-09 Board of directors.  It only takes a minute!  The deadline is Friday, May 16^th.

From the Vice President - Technology

Jack Bowler
Bowler Petrophysics, Inc.

Dominic asked for some thoughts from the VP Technology for next year but before I do that on behalf of DWLS I would like to thank a number of people who made this year's speaking program another good one.  Firstly thanks to all of those who took the time and made the effort to present a lunch time talk.  Based on the attendance figures they all did a great job that generated some interesting questions and discussions.  Thanks to Michael Holmes who stepped in when we needed to make a last minute scheduling change.  Thanks to Bob Eaton who made sure that speakers received a USB travel drive with their name engraved on the case.  And finally, thanks to Eleice Wickham who has been taking the DWLS reservations.  We will get a chance to meet Eleice and say thanks in person for the last time at the May 20 meeting.

Thoughts for next year's program

The VP Technology is an interesting job because you get to pick the speakers and let them talk about anything they want or you pick subjects you are interested in.  That is what I did this year.  Over the years I have noticed that speakers with a geologic bent tend to draw more lunch attendees than service company speakers and those who are perceived to be log analysts and petrophysicists.  That is what happened again this year.  Since DWLS is trying to reach as many people in the oil and gas community as possible we should keep that in mind. 

It may be time to survey the DWLS community to see what subjects they would like to have covered at the luncheon talks.  In that vein I would like to hear someone tie in Ro and TOC, S1 and S2 Rock-Eval results to discoveries, reserves and sweet spots for all reservoir types. TOC, S1 and S2 can be estimated from logs after calibration to lab data.  I would also like to hear a talk discussing mud log shows and how they relate to actual production and discoveries.  And how they don't.

For prospective speakers next year - please get your Talk Title, Abstract and bio in to the next VP Technology on time.

 PS - it actually is a fun job!

"Advanced Applications of Sonic Data in Anisotropic Rocks"

Peter Kaufman and Shannon Higgins
Schlumberger - Geomechanics Domain

Sonic anisotropy, defined as the variation in slowness as measured in different directions for a rock sample, is common in many sedimentary formations. Sonic anisotropy is broadly characterized in two end-member categories: intrinsic and stress induced anisotropy. Intrinsic anisotropy is an inherent property of the rock, independent of the bore hole, e.g., sedimentary layering or aligned natural fractures. Stress induced anisotropy results from the imposition of far-field tectonic stresses on a formation with the presence of the borehole. Distinguishing stress induced anisotropy from intrinsic anisotropy can be done by looking at the frequency-dependent dipole shear slowness on a dispersion plot.

Azimuthal shear slowness anisotropy in a vertical wellbore typically results from stress, aligned natural fractures, or a combination of the two phenomena. Combining the observed magnitude of slowness anisotropy with interpreted fractures from an image log in a forward model allows for better quantification of the source of sonic anisotropy and distinguishes zones where natural fractures dominate from zones where they do not contribute to the sonic anisotropy.

Vertical sonic anisotropy, controlled by sedimentary layering, has been shown to have a significant impact in anisotropic mechanical rock properties, which guide completion design. An acoustical logging measurement and methodology is now available that can determine elastic properties in both horizontal and vertical directions. Considering the anisotropic nature of shale and other layered media enables more accurate estimation of the in-situ earth stress. The ability to accurately quantify properties in the earth may significantly improve efficient hydraulic fracture stimulations as well as optimize staging and perforating schemes.

A variety of both vertical and horizontal sonic anisotropy examples from the western United States will be presented to show the important impact of fully characterizing formation acoustic properties.

About the Speaker

Dr. Peter Kaufman joined the Schlumberger's US West Geomechanics and Sonic Scanner processing group in July 2007 and assumed its leadership in November 2007. He started his professional career in 1995 on the Basin Modeling Team for Amoco E&P in Houston, providing technical basin modeling support for exploration teams evaluating acreage in Trinidad, Venezuela, China, and Canada. In 1998, he joined Schlumberger-Doll Research as a structural geologist researching workflows and software to capture and utilize geological outcrop analogs of faulted and fractured reservoirs. After a two-month secondment in Schlumberger's Abingdon Software center in 2001, He turned his research focus to modeling fault and fracture properties in reservoir simulation. He authored the requirements and specifications for the Fault Property Calculator module for FloGrid and Petrel and developed an ECLIPSE simulation approach for unstructured gridding of fractured reservoirs. In 2005, he joined Schlumberger's Data & Consulting Services group in Pittsburgh as a Principal Geologist, where he worked primarily on geomodeling for gas storage projects and emerging shale gas plays. He holds a Ph.D. from MIT in Geology and Geophysics, where he did geologic field mapping in the Rhodope Mountains of Greece.

Shannon Higgins is a geomechanics engineer with Schlumberger Data and Consulting Services in Denver.  She has a Bachelor of Science degree in geomechanics from the University of Rochester.  She has a Master's of Science degree in geophysics from the Colorado School of Mines.  For Schlumberger, Shannon currently specializes in geomechanics for drilling and completion optimization as well as rock properties analysis.  She specifically focuses on geomechanics for unconventional resource plays.