NOTE TO JOURNALISTS: A photo of Simon Shaw is available on the
Web at http://www.uh.edu/admin/media/
nr/2005/07july/070705sshawphoto.html.
GEOPHYSICS GRADUATE BLAZES
NEW TRAILS FOR UH IN SEISMIC EXPLORATION
SEG Recognizes Simon Shaw for Contribution in Locating Hydrocarbon
Reservoirs
HOUSTON, July 19, 2005 – Innovations in seismic technology
for oil and gas exploration have earned top international honors
for a recent University of Houston Ph.D. graduate in geophysics.
Simon A. Shaw, a 2005 UH graduate from the department of geosciences,
will receive the J. Clarence Karcher Award from the Society of Exploration
Geophysicists (SEG). The award honors Karcher’s contribution
to exploration geophysics and is given in recognition of significant
contributions by a young geophysicist of outstanding abilities under
the age of 35. Shaw is the first UH graduate to receive this award,
which officially will be presented during the SEG International
Conference and Meeting in Houston Nov. 6-11.
“The Karcher is an extremely high honor, with a maximum of
three given each year internationally by the SEG,” said Cullen
Distinguished Professor of Physics Arthur B. Weglein, Shaw’s
adviser at UH. “Shaw is an outstanding, courageous and gifted
scientist.”
Shaw has broken ground with a new methodology that is directly
aimed at one of the most serious impediments to seismic imaging
and processing – the inability to adequately define the values
and boundaries when complex geologic formations are above potential
petroleum targets. Shaw’s insight and analysis led to an imaging
series algorithm with the potential to provide accurate depth imaging
beneath a complex overburden, such as salt, basalt and karsted sediments,
that is not limited by the traditional requirement for adequate
velocity information.
“This research project appealed to me because it represented
an entirely novel approach to solving the problem of imaging beneath
an unknown medium, even one as complex as can occur in sub-salt
plays,” Shaw said. “I feel fortunate to have been given
the opportunity to contribute to such an exciting and ambitious
project for my Ph.D.”
According to Shaw, his embryonic algorithm is now being generalized
for eventual field trials and is designed to solve the problem of
developing an image to find oil and gas where current imaging methods
fail.
“There is a conundrum in current imaging algorithms, which
is that we assume we can provide the speed at which waves travel
through the Earth, also known as the velocity model,” Shaw
said. “Even our best velocity estimation techniques can fail
to produce an adequate velocity model, especially in complex geological
environments. Using current imaging technology, and without an adequate
velocity model, we can’t map the subsurface geology or determine
the location of reservoirs.”
Unlike current imaging theory, Shaw’s research began with
the assumption that under some circumstances the velocity model
is not able to adequately be determined. He posed the question of
how to then accurately image reflectors beneath an unknown medium
as complex as can occur in the Earth’s subsurface. The answer
that Shaw and his colleagues developed is a series of non-linear
computations that converge to an accurate image of the subsurface
while only using an approximate velocity model.
“His research into seismic imaging, using the inverse scattering
series, avoids the need for earth property information above a subsurface
target in order to determine its potential as a hydrocarbon reservoir,”
Weglein said. “His pioneering research contribution spearheaded
our sub-salt imaging campaign, helping to develop and progress a
solution to the problem of extracting information about currently
inaccessible targets. His efforts derive from the inverse scattering
series, a comprehensive theory that earlier contributed to similar
capability for removing multiples, a form of coherent noise in seismic
data.”
Under Weglein’s guidance, three of his former students –
Paulo Carvalho of Petrobras, Fernanda Araújo of ExxonMobil,
and Ken Matson of BP who is also an adjunct physics professor at
UH – worked in a team that included Bob Stolt of ConocoPhillips
to pioneer the research into removing multiples. Matson and Araújo,
graduates of the University of British Columbia and Federal University
of Bahia in Brazil, also received Karcher Awards in 1999 and 2000,
respectively. According to Weglein, Shaw was the lead member of
the research team on the project that addressed the processing of
primaries, with other key contributors including Matson, UH Adjunct
Physics Professors Doug Foster of ConocoPhillips and Bob Keys of
Exxon Mobil, as well as UH graduate students Fang Liu and Haiyan
Zhang and UH Research Assistant Professors Bogdan Nita and Kristopher
Innanen.
“Shaw’s creative and resolute doctoral research efforts
to develop, analyze and test a new velocity-independent, depth-accurate
imaging algorithm will be viewed in seismic exploration history
as an important and critical contribution,” Weglein said.
“This is a milestone in providing a new vision and capability
to information extraction from seismic data, aimed at locating and
delineating targets beneath highly complex heterogeneous overburdens
and rapidly variable boundaries that are beyond all current velocity
methods’ ability to adequately define. Shaw’s aim is
to make currently inaccessible or ill-defined targets accessible.
These efforts are intended to bring the same level of effectiveness
and impact to signal extraction that earlier methods, derived from
the same comprehensive theory, brought to the removal of multiples.”
Shaw graduated from UH in May 2005 with his doctorate in geophysics
from the department of geosciences. Prior to UH, he received his
master’s degree in marine studies from the University of Delaware
and bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Imperial
College in London. After earning his Ph.D., Shaw joined ConocoPhillips
in Houston as a research geophysicist in the subsurface technology
department. He was a ConocoPhillips fellow while at UH in the Mission-Oriented
Seismic Research Program (M-OSRP), a petroleum industry supported
educational and research consortium that mentors students in several
degree programs including physics and geophysics.
M-OSRP addresses fundamental research problems with solutions that
would have a significant positive impact on the ability to locate
and produce hydrocarbons, developing scientific and technical leaders
capable of advancing reliable prediction and reduced risk in the
petroleum industry. One such significant issue in exploration and
production seismology is locating and identifying petroleum targets
beneath ill-defined geologic formations.
“Simon Shaw exemplifies the highest standard of scientific
and personal integrity, professional accomplishment and true leadership,”
Weglein said. “He makes us all proud.”
About the University of Houston
The University of Houston, Texas’ premier metropolitan research
and teaching institution, is home to more than 40 research centers
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centers, Texas Medical Center institutions and national laboratories.
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