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Interpretation of fractured zones using seismic attributes — Case study from


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t Technical papers

Interpretation of fractured zones using seismic attributes — Case study


from Teapot Dome, Wyoming, USA
Sarah Schneider1, Christoph Georg Eichkitz2, Marcellus Gregor Schreilechner2, and John C. Davis3
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Abstract
We have used poststack seismic attributes to describe the fracture network of the naturally fractured
Tensleep Formation at Teapot Dome, Wyoming, USA. The attributes include coherence, coherence based on
spectral decomposed seismic data, attributes based on curvature, and textural attributes based on the gray-level
co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). Results were compared with image log interpretations of four wells. Seismic
attribute analysis allowed determination of strikes and dips as well as the intensity of fractures. The GLCM-
based attributes proved especially valuable for building a discrete fracture network.

Introduction ment of the uplifted basement over a steeply dipping


Fractures are discontinuities in a rock that can either basement thrust (Wilson et al., 2015).
contribute to fluid flow or act as barriers. This makes The stratigraphic units at Teapot Dome consist of
understanding the fracture network within a fractured Devonian to Upper Cretaceous strata (Figure 2), and
reservoir essential for the enhancement of hydrocarbon include nine oil-bearing and six water-bearing forma-
production. Traditionally, fractures are characterized tions (Friedmann and Stamp, 2006). The deepest hydro-
from cores and image logs or other approaches that carbon-producing target within Teapot Dome is the
combine geologic and structural data with geostatistical Pennsylvanian Tensleep Formation (Chiaramonte et al.,
methods. Improvements in seismic acquisition and 2008, 2011), a sandstone deposited in a desert environ-
processing, as well as the growth of computer-aided ment (Kerr and Dott, 1988), interrupted by occasional
techniques in the recent past, have led to the develop- marine transgressions that created thin evaporite and
ment of analytical tools, such as discrete fracture net- carbonate beds (Zhang, 2005). The reservoir consists
work (DFN) modeling. of several intervals in which the Tensleep B Sandstone
In this study, a DFN based on poststack seismic (Figure 3) is continuous and is the main producing hori-
attribute calculations is used to characterize the frac- zon (Friedmann and Stamp, 2006; Chiaramonte et al.,
ture network of the Tensleep Formation at Teapot 2008, 2011).
Dome in Wyoming, USA. The used poststack seismic The Opeche Shale Member and anhydrite of the Min-
attributes are coherence, curvature, coherence on spec- nekahta Limestone Member of Goose Egg Formation
tral decomposed seismic cubes, and textural attributes (Figure 3) regionally seal the Tensleep Formation
based on the gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM). throughout Wyoming (Chiaramonte et al., 2008, 2011).
All attributes are calculated as volumes integrating the The Pennsylvanian Tensleep Formation occurs also
structural dip into calculations. Calculation of GLCM as a naturally fractured reservoir interval in several
attributes can be performed in several directions. Based Rocky Mountain oil fields and has been the subject
on the comparison on attribute response from several of extensive investigations of fracturing (Cooper, 2000;
directions, it is possible to determine anisotropy effects Cooper et al., 2006; Cooper and Lorenz, 2007). Previous
in the subsurface, which can be related to fracturing. fracture studies of the Tensleep Formation include ana-
The Teapot Dome oilfield is located approximately log field studies at Alcova Anticline (Gilbertson, 2006)
30 mi north of Casper in Natrona county and covers and Fremont Canyon (Zhang, 2005; Wilson et al., 2013b,
nearly 40.5 km2 (10,000 acres) (Friedmann and Stamp, 2015). Seismic attribute analyses have been carried out
2006) (Figure 1). The doubly plunging anticline extends by Ouenes et al. (2010), Gao (2013), Wilson et al. (2012,
into the basement (Cooper et al., 2001, 2006) and was 2013a, 2013b, 2015), Di and Gao (2014), and Thachapar-
formed during the Laramide orogeny by reverse move- ambil (2015). A study of open fractures seen on five

1
MOL Group, Budapest, Hungary. E-mail: sschneider@mol.hu.
2
Geo5 GmbH, Leoben, Austria. E-mail: christoph.eichkitz@geo-5.at; marcellus.schreilechner@geo-5.at.
3
Heinemann Oil GmbH, Leoben, Austria. E-mail: jcdbaldwin@gmail.com.
Manuscript received by the Editor 10 December 2015; revised manuscript received 5 February 2016; published online 18 April 2016. This paper
appears in Interpretation, Vol. 4, No. 2 (May 2016); p. T273–T284, 11 FIGS.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1190/INT-2015-0210.1. © 2016 Society of Exploration Geophysicists and American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights reserved.

Interpretation / May 2016 T273


image logs through the Tensleep Formation was done Seismic and well data must share a common domain
by Schwartz (2006). for interpretation and modeling. To link the two types of
data, synthetic seismograms for 12 wells were gener-
ated in step 1, making it possible to identify the seismic
Methodology reflectors (Figure 4b) that represent the tops of the Sec-
The aim of this study is to calculate volumetric frac- ond Wall Creek Sandstone (pink horizon), Morrison
ture intensities and volumetric strike and dip of frac- Formation (blue horizon), Alcova Limestone (green
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tures for the Tensleep Formation based mainly on horizon), and Tensleep Formation (yellow horizon).
seismic attributes and later on use this information The top of the Fremont Canyon Sandstone (orange hori-
for a DFN. The Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center zon) was assigned to a reflector based on interpreta-
(RMOTC) provides public access to an extensive collec- tions by Wilson et al. (2013b). In step 2 (Figure 4b),
tion of data about Teapot Dome for scientific and tech- these five horizons were picked manually on every fifth
nical research. Three-dimensional seismic data, well inline and crossline. The 3D autotracking was then used
headers, well deviation surveys, formation tops, petro- to create continuous horizons on every line, and the fi-
physical logs of 27 wells, and GIS coordinates were nal tracked horizons served as input to generate 3D sur-
used in this study. faces. Faults were interpreted by picking every fifth
To establish a DFN, a workflow of seven steps has inline or crossline.
been generated (Figure 4). The first five steps consist Structural modeling in step 3 (Figure 4c) involved
of the generation of synthetics, seismic interpretation, building a framework of grid cells to be assigned prop-
time-depth conversion, and structural modeling. The erties required for reservoir characterization. “Fault
sixth step (Figure 4f), seismic attribute calculation, is modeling” is a process of representing the shapes of
the most time-consuming part of this study. The last picked faults by key pillars. In this study, each key pillar
step (Figure 4g) of the workflow is the creation of a has three shape points that can be edited separately to
DFN based on the seismic attributes and log data. tilt the pillars and model listric faults.
Input data are a 3D poststack migrated seismic vol- After fault modeling, the skeletal framework of the
ume, with 345 inlines and 188 crosslines, and digital structural model was built by pillar gridding. Distances
well data from 27 wells. The well logs used include between inlines and crosslines defined the dimensions
sonic and density logs, plus image logs from four wells. of grid cells.

Figure 1. Location of Teapot Dome relative to the Powder River Basin (modified after Cooper et al., 2006).

T274 Interpretation / May 2016


Horizons inserted into the structural model include Thickness isochore surfaces were used to add zones
the Alcova Limestone, Tensleep Formation, and Fre- between the already modeled horizons. The isochores
mont Canyon Sandstone; these honor the grid incre- were based on the vertical distances between formation
ments and faults defined in previous steps. The tops in wells and are in the depth-domain. To integrate
construction of horizon-fault lines helped to model these with the time-domain seismic information, it was
the displacement of the horizons along the individual necessary to convert the seismic structural model from
faults. time to depth. A 3D grid-based seismic velocity model
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was built in step 4 (Figure 4d) by inverting the available


sonic well logs, then scaling them up to transfer the
velocities into the grid cells penetrated by the wells.
Other grid cells were populated with velocities interpo-
lated by stochastic sequential Gaussian simulation. A
P-wave velocity cube generated with Hampson and
Russel software provided a secondary data source used
in collocated cokriging to guide the interpolation.
In step 5 (Figure 4e), the isochore surfaces and the
corresponding well tops were used to define strati-
graphic intervals within the depth-converted structural
model. A vertical subdivision or layering defines the
height of the 3D grid cells. Proportional layering was
used to avoid pinchouts and to honor the 2 ms sample
rate. The completed structural model contains approx-
imately 1.7 million grid cells with an average grid spac-
ing of 33.5 m (110 ft) in the inline and crossline
directions and an average 1.8 m (6 ft) spacing in the ver-
tical direction.
The sixth step (Figure 4f) in this workflow was to
calculate poststack seismic attributes. Coherence, cur-
vature, spectral decomposition, and directional GLCM
attributes were calculated to assess fractures in the
Tensleep Formation.
The final step (step 7 [Figure 4g]) is the construction
of a DFN. Seismic attributes that might be relevant for
the determination of fractured zones and indicators of

Figure 2. Stratigraphic column of Teapot Dome (modified Figure 3. Detailed overview of the Tensleep Formation and
after Cooper et al. [2006] and Wilson et al. [2015]). its subdivisions (modified after Wilson et al., 2015).

Interpretation / May 2016 T275


fracture intensity need to be upscaled within the struc-
tural model. Together with log data, these attributes can
then act as driver for the construction of a DFN. In this
work, the aim was to determine attributes that are
capable of describing fracture intensities and fracture
strike and dip. As the creation of a DFN was not the
direct target of this work it is not described.
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Seismic attribute methodology


A seismic attribute is a quantitative extraction of a
seismic characteristic (Chopra and Marfurt, 2005) that
visually enhances features of interest that may be too
subtle in a traditional seismic image. Seismic attributes
support the interpretation of seismic data and are either
directly sensitive to geologic features or allow defini-
tion of structural or depositional environments (Chopra
and Marfurt, 2007). Poststack seismic attributes used
here include coherence, curvature, spectral decomposi-
tion, and textural attributes.
Coherence measures the similarity between seismic
waveforms from one trace to another and highlights lo-
cations of low coherence in which there are lateral
differences in seismic response. These low-coherence
events may be caused by variations in structure, stratig-
raphy, lithology, porosity, or the presence of hydrocar-
bons (Marfurt et al., 1998). Coherence is a helpful
attribute to detect and image faults and fractures, as
well as changes in stratigraphic features (Bahorich
and Farmer, 1995). Coherence, as developed by Bahor-
ich and Farmer (1995), is based on the crosscorrelation
of adjacent seismic traces in the inline and crossline
directions. Several other algorithms exist in addition
to crosscorrelation-based coherence, such as sem-
blance-based coherence (Marfurt et al., 1998), eigen-
structure-based coherence (Gersztenkorn and Marfurt,
1999), gradient-structure tensor-based coherence (Bak-
ker, 2002), least-squares-based coherence (Bednar,
1998), higher order statistics-based coherence (Lu et al.,
2005), and entropy measurement-based coherence (Co-
hen and Coifman, 2002). In this study, semblance-based
coherence was used for all coherence estimation. Un-
like the methodology based on crosscorrelation, this co-
herence calculation takes several traces into account
simultaneously.
Curvature measures the bending of a surface and has
a physical relation to fracture intensity; it is widely used
to gather additional information for fracture prediction
(Gao et al., 2011). In two dimensions, curvature can be
defined as the reciprocal of the radius of an osculating
Figure 4. Workflow of the creation of a DFN using seismic
attribute calculations and image log data. (a) Step 1: genera- circle that is tangent to the curve at any point. This im-
tion of synthetic seismograms to identify seismic reflectors for plies that a sharply bent structure leads to a small circle
selected well tops. (b) Step 2: interpretation of horizons and radius that has a large value of curvature. The 2D cur-
faults in the seismic section. (c) Step 3: structural modeling to vature can be extended to define curvature in three di-
provide basic grid geometry. (d) Step 4: building a 3D grid- mensions, using two orthogonal planes cut a surface
based seismic velocity model to depth convert the structural and describing a curve at their intersection. Curvature
model. (e) Step 5: creation of different stratigraphic intervals
(zones) of the model and defining height of 3D grid cells
can be calculated at any point along this curve (Rob-
(layering). (f) Step 6: calculation of poststack seismic attrib- erts, 2001).
utes to extract fractures in the Tensleep Formation. (g) Step 7: Roberts (2001) describes several curvature attrib-
establishing a DFN based on seismic analysis and image logs. utes, such as mean curvature, minimum and maximum

T276 Interpretation / May 2016


curvatures, dip curvature, strike curvature, most posi- rocks. They compare their results with full spectrum co-
tive and most negative curvature, Gaussian curvature, herence cubes and come to the conclusion that discrete
and a shape index. According to Chopra and Marfurt frequency coherence cubes delineated more faults and
(2007), most positive and most negative curvature fractured zones. To improve fault and fracture detec-
attributes are best correlated with geologic features. tion within this study, spectral frequency cubes ex-
Curvature attributes are especially useful for describing tracted from CWT-based spectral decomposition are
tensile fractures associated with the crests of anticlines. integrated within semblance-based coherence calcu-
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Gao (2013) uses curvature and curvature gradient lations.


attributes to describe the fractured Tensleep Forma- Textural attributes describe the spatial arrangement
tion. Shear fractures along the northwest-trending up- of neighboring amplitudes and provide information
thrust and northeast-trending transfer faults were about the spatial dependencies of rock units, depositio-
best described by curvature gradient attributes. nal facies, and reservoir properties (Gao, 2011). Texture
Spectral decomposition divides the seismic response attributes are based on statistics, making them an alter-
of the subsurface into different spectral bands. This en- native to ordinary attribute analysis (Vinther, 1997) be-
ables the detection of subtle structural and stratigraphic cause they are less sensitive to seismic waveform than
features that are carried by certain frequency compo- coherence or curvature (de Matos et al., 2011). Various
nents and that normally would be buried within broad- methods are available for texture analysis. We have
band data (Li and Lu, 2014). Other applications, in used statistical texture classification based on the
addition to imaging geologic discontinuities, are map- GLCM (Haralick et al., 1973) to describe fracture inten-
ping variation in thickness and the quantitative predic- sities and fracture strike and dip. The GLCM measures
tion of bedding thickness (Partyka et al., 1999). Seismic the occurrence of different combinations of pixel
data commonly are converted into the frequency domain brightness values in a digital image and was originally
either by a short window discrete Fourier transform developed to classify textures in 2D pictures. The cal-
(Partyka et al., 1999) or by a continuous wavelet trans- culations have been extended to full 3D volumes (Eich-
form (CWT) (Castagna et al., 2003). kitz et al., 2013). Attributes based on the GLCM can be
Case studies (Sun et al., 2010; Li and Lu, 2014) classified into three general attribute groups: a contrast
have demonstrated that a combination of spectral de- group, an orderliness group, and a statistics group (Har-
composition and coherence improves the detection alick et al., 1973).
of structural features. Sun et al. (2010) use discrete fre- Gao (2003, 2007, 2009, 2011) and Eichkitz et al. (2013,
quency coherence cubes to detect fractures in volcanic 2014, 2015a, 2015b) demonstrate that GLCM-based

Figure 5. Series of coherence time slices (1100 ms). (a) Coherence of the raw seismic data, (b) coherence of dip-steered (event
steering) seismic data, (c) coherence of dip steered and fault enhancement filtered seismic data, and (d) results from Petrel’s ant-
tracking algorithm applied to coherence cube of panel (c). The enhancement of fault (red arrow) and circular structures (blue
arrows) could be improved by dip steering and filtering of the raw seismic data.

Interpretation / May 2016 T277


attributes are effective for identifying and illuminating delineate faults and fractures with a preferred orienta-
seismic facies such as channel structures and sedimen- tion (Gao, 2003, 2009, 2011; de Matos et al., 2011) and to
tary facies within these channels. Because of the sensi- determine their intensities, strikes, and dips (Eichkitz
tivity of textural attributes to dip and azimuth of seismic et al., 2014, 2015a, 2015b). The workflow for seismic
reflections, Gao (2003) highlights features, such as roll- fracture detection using GLCM-based attributes is di-
over structures and listric faults. The evaluation of tex- vided into five steps. The first step is calculation of each
tural attributes in specific directions can be used to GLCM-based attribute in 13 directions and using 64 gray
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levels to transform the seismic amplitude volume into a


gray-level cube.
The second step is determination of minimum and
maximum values and their directions for each GLCM-
based attribute. In step 3, the ratios between maxima
and minima are calculated and the ratios used to set
a threshold. The threshold value is applied in step 4
to identify areas with higher directional variability
and to visualize only the directions of minima and
maxima. The ratio between maximum and minimum
GLCM-based attribute values is an indicator of fracture
intensity. Finally, in step 5, the minimum and maximum
values are used to determine the dip and azimuth of
fractures.

Seismic attribute interpretation of fractures


Seismic attribute analysis was used to highlight
faults and fractured zones within the Tensleep Forma-
tion and to support the development of a DFN. To opti-
mize the interpretation of faults and fractures, a large
number of poststack seismic attributes must be calcu-
Figure 6. (a) Coherence attribute on time slice 1200 ms and lated. All coherence cubes generated in this study are
(b) most positive curvature attribute on time slice 1200 ms. based on the semblance-based coherence algorithm
Faults can still be detected in curvature attributes, although in OpendTect (dGB Earth Sciences). To obtain optimal
they have minor throw (red arrows). results, it was necessary to calculate volumetric dip

Figure 7. (a) Karst feature on seismic section and coherence time slice, (b) most positive curvature attribute (red) indicates
flanks of the karst feature, (c) most negative curvature attribute (blue) indicates thalweg of the karst feature, (d) fault on seismic
section and coherence time slice, (e) most positive curvature attribute (red) indicates upthrown fault part, and (f) most negative
curvature attribute (blue) indicates downthrown fault part.

T278 Interpretation / May 2016


cubes (steering cubes) for dip guidance and to apply Petrel’s ant-tracking algorithm was applied to the co-
different noise-reducing filtering methods. The best re- herence in Figure 4c.
sults were obtained using a discrete scan method (event Unlike coherence, most positive and negative curva-
steering in OpendTect) and filtering the raw seismic ture attributes can be used to detect faults that have
data with a fault enhancement filter. A series of coher- died out (Figure 6) and become flexures (Chopra and
ence time slices is compared in Figure 5; the coherence Marfurt, 2007). The combined use of most positive
calculated on dip-steered and filtered seismic data (Fig- and negative curvature attributes can define the flanks
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ure 5c) has reduced noise and shows sharper faults. To and bottoms of circular patterns (Figure 7a–7c) that
improve fault and fracture visualization (Figure 5d), may be karst features in dolomitic intervals in the upper

Figure 8. Spectral decomposition images at (a) 30, (b) 40, and (c) 50 Hz. (d) Seismic amplitude coherence on spectral decom-
position cubes of (e) 30, (f) 40, and (g) 50 Hz. Arrows indicate faults (red) and karst structures (blue) visible at particular frequen-
cies. (h) RGB blending of these coherence slices (red: 30 Hz, green: 40 Hz, and blue: 50 Hz) clearly indicates faults.

Interpretation / May 2016 T279


Tensleep Formation. Curvature attributes also indicate and 50 Hz. The frequency dependency of geologic struc-
the upthrown and downthrown sides of faults (Fig- tures is apparent in Figure 8a–8c. RGB blending enhan-
ure 7d–7f). ces the faults and also reveals more circular features
Spectral decomposition was used to separate the (Figure 8d).
seismic broadband spectrum and highlight features car- Seismic attributes based on the GLCM were used for
ried by different frequencies. The decomposition of the estimating the strike and dip of fractures. Figure 9
seismic signal was done in OpendTect and based on shows the maximum and the minimum of the GLCM-
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CWT analysis using a Morlet wavelet. The output fre- based attribute energy. This attribute shows highest val-
quency cubes were generated in 5 Hz steps from 5 to ues when calculated along the strike of a feature and is
90 Hz and were then filtered with a dip-steered median therefore a useful indicator of the strike direction of
filter. The filtered cubes were used as input for coher- fractured zones (Figure 9a). Figure 10 shows GLCM-
ence calculations. based energy that indicates areas with high directional
Figure 8 shows semblance-based coherence time sli- variability. These areas are zones of fractures that have
ces based on spectral decomposition cubes of 30, 40, different fracture azimuths as indicated by colors.
The effectiveness of an attribute in DFN modeling
can be judged by comparison with image log data (Tha-
chaparambil, 2015). The GLCM-based attribute calcula-
tions were used to generate fracture strikes and dips
that were plotted as rose diagrams to compare with dia-
grams based on image logs (Figure 11). It was first nec-
essary to upscale the fault and fracture estimates. The
GLCM energy attribute produced a good match (Fig-
ure 11) and is a potential indicator for fracture strike
and dip estimation. For further calculation of a DFN,
this information can be used as driver for fracture inten-
sities modeling.

Conclusions
Seismic attribute analyses demonstrated consistent
delineation and enhancement of faults and fractures
in this 3D seismic survey case study. The attribute is
a good way to calculate volumetric estimation of frac-
ture intensities, which can later be used for the con-
struction of a DFN model of the Tensleep Formation
Figure 9. GLCM-based energy calculated for (a) maximum at Teapot Dome, Wyoming.
and (b) minimum values, corresponding to the highest and Prior dip steering and filtering of the raw seismic
lowest directional variation of seismic response. data created the high-quality seismic coherence cubes.

Figure 10. The ratio of maximum and mini-


mum calculated energy can be used to map
areas with higher tendencies of directional
variability associated with highly fractured
zones. A decrease in fracture intensity can
be observed from the fractured (a) Tensleep
B Sandstone, (b) the overlying Opeche Shale,
and (c) Minnekahata Limestone, which is re-
garded to be sealing units.

T280 Interpretation / May 2016


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Figure 11. Rose diagrams for well 48-X-28. Comparison of fracture strike and dip of image log data (orange) with maximum azimuth
and dip of GLCM-based attributes energy (blue), entropy (green), homogeneity (rose), contrast (turquoise), variance (violet), and
dissimilarity (yellow). The last column shows the results of Thachaparambil (2015), where spectral edge attribute calculations were
converted into discrete objects called seismic discontinuity planes (SDPs) to compare their azimuth and dip with image log data.

In addition to noise reduction and sharpening of faults, based energy attribute proved especially valuable for
seismic attributes also highlighted geologic features building a DFN, as the fracture model closely compared
other than faults and fractures, such as karst features. with fracture models from previous studies.
Most positive and negative curvature attributes helped
to determine the upthrown and downthrown sides of
faults and could detect minor faults that were not ap- Acknowledgments
parent on coherence time slices. This makes informa- We would like to thank the RMOTC for providing the
tion from curvature attributes a useful supplement to data and the permission to publish the results of this
coherence interpretations. Coherence based on spec- study. Critical and constructive reviews by S. Yuan
tral decomposition cubes revealed faults and karst fea- and two anonymous reviewers helped to improve an
tures at different frequencies and could delineate early version of this paper.
anomalies otherwise buried in broadband data. Use
of two different attributes offered the possibility of References
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Li, F., and W. Lu, 2014, Coherence attribute at different Wilson, T. H., V. Smith, A. L. Brown, and D. Gao, 2012,
spectral scales: Interpretation, 2, no. 1, SA99–SA106, Modeling discrete fracture networks in the Tensleep
doi: 10.1190/INT-2013-0089.1. sandstone: Teapot Dome, Wyoming: Annual Convention
Lu, W., Y. Li, S. Zhang, H. Xiao, and Y. Li, 2005, Higher-or- and Exhibition, AAPG, Abstract, Search and Discovery
der-statistics and supertrace-based coherence-estima- article #50658.
tion algorithm: Geophysics, 79, no. 3, P13–P18, doi: Zhang, Q., 2005, Stratigraphy and sedimentology of the
10.1190/1.1925746. Tensleep sandstone at the Teapot Dome and in out-
Marfurt, K. J., R. L. Kirlin, S. L. Farmer, and M. S. Bahorich, crops, Wyoming: M.S. thesis, Colorado School of Mines.
1998, 3-D seismic attributes using a semblance-based
coherency algorithm: Geophysics, 63, 1150–1165, doi:
10.1190/1.1444415. Sarah Schneider received a master’s
Ouenes, A., T. Anderson, D. Klepacki, A. Bachir, D. Bou- degree (2015) in petroleum geo-
khelf, U. Araktingi, M. Holmes, B. Black, and V. Stamp, physics from the Montanuniversitaet
2010, Integrated characterization and simulation of Leoben, Austria. During her master’s
the fractured Tensleep Reservoir at Teapot Dome for studies, she worked as a researcher
CO2 injection design: Presented at the SPE Western at Joanneum Research, Institute of
Geophysics and Geothermics (now
Regional Meeting, SPE 132404.
Geo5 GmbH), where she finished
Partyka, G., J. Gridley, and J. Lopez, 1999, Interpretational her master’s thesis related to seismic
applications of spectral decomposition in reservoir attributes. Currently, she is participating in a graduate pro-
characterization: The Leading Edge, 18, 353–360, doi: gram of MOL Group in Budapest, Hungary.
10.1190/1.1438295.
Roberts, A., 2001, Curvature attributes and their applica- Christoph Georg Eichkitz received
tion to 3D interpreted horizons: First Break, 19, 85– a master’s degree (2005) in applied
100, doi: 10.1046/j.0263-5046.2001.00142.x. geophysics from the Montanuniversi-
Schwartz, B., 2006, Fracture pattern characterization of taet Leoben, Austria, where his re-
the Tensleep Formation, Teapot Dome, Wyoming: search was focused on modeling of
M.S. thesis, West Virginia University. microgravity data. He cofounded
Sun, D. S., Y. Ling, X. Y. Guo, J. Gao, and J. X. Lin, 2010, Geo5 GmbH in July 2015, where he
is responsible for seismic interpreta-
Application of discrete frequency coherence cubes in
tion, attribute calculation, and struc-
the fracture detection of volcanic rocks in full-azimuth
tural modeling. Prior to founding Geo5 GmbH, he
seismic data: 80th Annual International Meeting, SEG, worked for Joanneum Research, Institute of Geophysics
Expanded Abstracts, 1342–1346. and Geothermics, for eight years. His main research inter-
Thachaparambil, M. V., 2015, Discrete 3D fracture network ests include seismic attributes calculation, pattern recog-
extraction and characterization from 3D seismic data — nition, and interpretation workflows.
A case study at Teapot Dome: Interpretation, 3, no. 3,
ST29–ST41, doi: 10.1190/INT-2014-0219.1. Marcellus Gregor Schreilechner re-
Vinther, R., 1997, Seismic texture classification applied ceived an M.S. (1996) and a Ph.D.
to processed 2D and 3D seismic data: 67th Annual (2007) in applied geosciences from
International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 721– the Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Aus-
724. tria, where he is also a lecturer for ap-
Wilson, T. H., V. Smith, and A. L. Brown, 2013a, Developing plied geophysics. Currently, he is the
head of the Institute of Geophysics
a strategy for CO2 EOR in an unconventional reservoir
and Geothermics at Joanneum Re-
using 3D seismic attribute workflows and fracture search, the second largest nonuniver-
image logs: 83rd Annual International Meeting, SEG, sity research organization in Austria. His main research
Expanded Abstracts, 2563–2567. interests include the sequence stratigraphic interpretation
Wilson, T. H., V. Smith, and A. L. Brown, 2013b, Characteri- of seismic reflection data, interpretation of well-log data,
zation of Tensleep reservoir fracture systems using out- and application of seismic attributes for reservoir charac-
crop analog, fracture image logs and 3D seismic: Rocky terization.

Interpretation / May 2016 T283


John C. Davis received an M.S. Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering. His
(1963) and a Ph.D. (1967) in geology textbook Statistics and data analysis in geology leads in
from the University of Wyoming, its field. After retiring in 2003, he joined the faculty of the
USA. After a brief stint on the faculty Montanuniversitaet Leoben, Austria, where he was a pro-
at Idaho State University, he joined fessor for geostatistics and reservoir characterization until
the University of Kansas where he 2006. Currently, he is a chief geologist for Heinemann Oil
served as chief of the Mathematical GmbH in Leoben.
Geology Section of the Kansas Geo-
Downloaded 04/20/16 to 178.189.59.158. Redistribution subject to SEG license or copyright; see Terms of Use at http://library.seg.org/

logical Survey and professor in the

T284 Interpretation / May 2016

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