This project responds to the need for more precise tools to help oil and gas companies better understand where undiscovered energy reserves lie deep within the earth, and to manage and utilize existing reserves.
Dr. Gary F. Margrave, & Dr. Michael Lamoureux, University of Calgary
This project responds to the need for more precise tools to help oil and gas companies better understand where undiscovered energy reserves lie deep within the earth, and to manage and utilize existing reserves. Bringing together mathematicians and geophysicists, this team develops new algorithms to improve upon existing seismic imaging techniques that create accurate images of the earth beneath our feet. In the past year, POTSI has developed a reverse-time algorithm based on the team’s Gabor transform technology, which provides much better preservation of high frequency components, and may result in a dramatic improvement in seismic imaging. A similar depth-stepping Gabor algorithm has been adapted to include topography. The resulting images are of excellent quality. The development of a large synthetic dataset to simulate the best images theoretically possible has provided useful information on how to minimize the "footprint" distortions that appear in real seismic images and are related to the data acquisition grid. Finally, a previously developed technique for modeling seismic waves in 2D, which has proved very successful, is being adapted to provide more accurate 3D models of subsurface structures.