Professional Development Services
This is a course for seismic interpreters tasked with creating depth maps and estimating uncertainty for volumetrics and well planning using Petrel. Time is split equally between teaching and exercises which illuminate concepts and guide attendees through workflows fully documented in a 200 page manual available exclusively on this course. The course incidentally provides attendees with insights into seismic imaging, tips on mapping & interpretation, and several efficiency enhancing spreadsheets to take away.
A five-day classroom course where lecture material including case-studies and recommended workflows are backed up by a comprehensive suite of exercises designed to show how to use Petrel for velocity analysis and depth conversion to maximum effect.
Depth conversion is approached as part of the geological-geophysical interpretation process, which starts during seismic time interpretation and ends with maps for STOIIP/GIIP calculations and well planning. Tips and techniques in data QC, practical velocity modelling methods, and recognition of geological and geophysical pitfalls are emphasised. Attendees will learn how to optimally use their velocity data, see how greater control on the velocity model can be achieved by incorporating geological understanding, and appreciate the importance of their choice of method for tying maps to wells. Petrel’s use of velocity is explained, and it will be shown how to perform depth conversion and sensitivity analysis efficiently. A wide range of experience will be catered for in the course which is biased towards worked examples. Attendees will leave with the skills necessary to independently undertake depth conversions, assess sensitivity and quantify depth uncertainty.
Geologists, Geophysicists, and Technical Support staff engaged in producing depth maps from seismic interpretations with Petrel software, as well as technical management and other subsurface professionals involved in evaluating and using depth mapping results.
A basic understanding of geology, structural interpretation and the seismic method is required. The lectures are suitable for attendees with a wide range of experience, but some exposure to mapping and seismic interpretation is required to gain full value from the Course.
The Course can be undertaken by those who have no Petrel experience, but it is better if students have at least been on an introductory Petrel course and/or have had hands-on project experience.
Those with limited seismic interpretation experience, no depth conversion experience and no Petrel experience will find the course demanding.
The course is delivered by Alan Atkinson. Alan has over thirty years of exploration, field development, and production geoscience experience with operators in West Africa, South Asia and the North Sea.
Specialising in the application of high end geophysics to structural and stratigraphic seismic interpretation, his areas of expertise are reservoir characterisation (using pre-stack inversion, AVO analysis) and velocity modelling (pre-stack depth migration and depth conversion).
He started his career working the North Sea with Phillips Petroleum and Amerada Hess in London, and subsequently moved to CNR International, working Angola and Côte d’Ivoire. He then moved to Cairn Energy, living and working in India, and becoming Chief Geophysicist during their successful Rajasthan campaign. Here, he supervised several significant seismic acquisition and processing programmes, and managed a geophysical studies team undertaking, amongst other projects, AVO modelling work and pioneering 4D studies on India’s largest onshore fields.
He is now a partner in Rockflow Resources Ltd, a specialist technical and management consultancy serving the international petroleum industry, primarily advising on reserve evaluations for a variety of clients worldwide and providing services as an Expert Witness in oil and gas disputes. He is also an honorary lecturer at Imperial College London, contributing to the Petroleum Geoscience MSc.
lan devised the ‘Depth Conversion Methods & Pitfalls’ course in 2009 and ‘Depth Conversion Methods & Petrel Workflows’ two years later. The courses have been delivered over 50 times to audiences across the world.
Oil companies, service companies who are interested in running the course in-house should contact Alan Atkinson, the course creator and presenter.
Individuals may also contact Rockflow to enquire about possibilities for participating in a course.
“Provides a comprehensive overview of depth conversion methodology, clearly delivered and progressively consolidated throughout progress of the course”
Origin Geophysicist (25 years experience)
“Where Alan’s course stands out is his emphasis on making the depth conversion defendable; namely choosing the right way to represent your geology whilst not building in unnecessary complications”
Conoco Phillips Interpreter
“I have been highly impressed by Alan’s course. Not only is Alan a superb teacher but he has put in in an enormous mountain of effort in building the spreadsheets which are keys to understanding in this subject area”
Tullow Lead Geoscientist (14 years experience)
“A really great course. I’ve learned a lot of new stuff that is very practical and applicable in my job”
Wintershall Geologist (1 year experience)
“Alan Atkinson has that rare skill to turn complex concepts into (almost) obvious matters”
GDF Suez Geophysicist (6 years experience)
“Depth conversion is a tough area to produce a course for…Alan has produced a course which strikes an excellent balance between the theoretical and practical”
BG Interpreter (17 years experience)
“I think this may be the best Nautilus classroom course I have had. The instructor manual and exercises were great”
Marathon Oil Senior Geophysicist (26 years experience)