News

Sponsors selected a reservoir characterization project in the Permian Basin, operated by Fasken Oil and Ranch, as the new field research project for 2023-2025. Please contact RCP if you wish to join the consortium for Phase XX.

Follow this Link for more information on Phase XX

2023 GRADUATE Mari Held

MS Geophysics

Where are you from?

Great Falls, MT

What work did you do at Mines? In my MS thesis I evaluated PP-PS 4D time-lapse response in the Edvard Grieg Field, North Sea. By comparing the original 3D baseline survey to Monitor 1 (2018) and Monitor 2 (2020), we were able to map production and injection fluid movement and differentiate pressure and saturation response throughout the field. In my work, I was able to quantify the pressure and saturation mapping using production data within the field.

What are your plans after graduation? Working at Continental Resources as a Geophysicist.

2023 GRADUATE Eric Hillman

MS Geology

Where are you from?

Midland, TX

What work did you do at Mines? At Mines, I worked on integrating full-bore formation micro-imager (FMI) data for Niobrara reservoir characterization within the Postle area of Wattenberg field, Colorado.

What are your plans after graduation? I am now a Field Engineer II with Liberty Energy, and my primary responsibility is to ensure that frac jobs are being pumped to design. 

2023 GRADUATE Moacyr De Souza Bezerra

PhD Geophysics

Where are you from?

Espirito Santo, Brazil

What work did you do at Mines? In my PhD thesis I addressed converted wave processing and interpretation from the Jubarte PRM project – offshore Brazil, focusing on receiver coupling corrections and their effects on 4D attributes such as NRMS and its relationship to physical phenomena such as shear wave splitting. I also worked with machine learning techniques to estimate shallow seafloor P- and S-wave velocity models using post critical arrivals.

What are your plans after graduation? Returning to Brazil and work with Petrobras as a exploration geophysicist.

2023 GRADUATE Youfang Liu

PhD Geophysics

Where are you from?

Jiujiang, China

What work did you do at Mines? My thesis is the application of multicomponent seismic data and distributed acoustic sensing data for unconventional reservoir development. I also enjoyed building a reservoir model using petrel and performing AVA inversion for rock property estimation using Hampson-Russell.

What are your plans after graduation? I will be with Chevron as a geophysicist / machine learning engineer in Houston, TX.

2022 GRADUATE Liwei Cheng

PhD Geophysics

Where are you from?

Taipei, Taiwan

What work did you do at Mines? At Mines, I was working on advanced formation evaluation methods incorporating rock physics models and Bayesian inversions. In addition, I advanced the Marchenko method to a land application in the Middle East.

What are your plans after graduation? I am now with ExxonMobil as a geoscientist in the unconventional technology development team.

2022 GRADUATE Joe Mjehovich

 

MS Geophysics

Where are you from?

Sacramento, California

What work did you do at Mines?

  1. Quantitative analysis of low-frequency distributed acoustic sensing data for hydraulic fracture characterization.
  2. Seismic site classification using distributed acoustic sensing.

What are your plans after graduation? I will be working for IFDATA as a Geophysicist, where I will continue research and development in fiber optic sensing technology.

2022 GRADUATE Xiaoyu (Rosie) Zhu

MS Geophysics

Where are you from?

Nanjing, China

What work did you do at Mines? Hydraulic fracture characterization in the Niobrara and Codell formations of the Denver-Julesburg Basin using low-frequency distributed acoustic sensing. I also worked on event detection for low-frequency DAS using machine learning.

What are your plans after graduation? I will be moving to Rice University in Houston to continue as a Geophysics PhD student!

2022 GRADUATE Kagan Kutun

PhD Petroleum Engineering

Where are you from?

Mersin, Turkey

What work did you do at Mines? I worked on fracture modeling in support of EGS COLLAB and high-resolution modeling of fiber optic distributed temperature sensing (DTS) for horizontal wells.

What are your plans after graduation? I am working at NREL as a Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Post-Doc.

2022 GRADUATE Aleksei Titov

PhD Geophysics

Where are you from?

St. Petersburg, Russia

What work did you do at Mines? Quantitative analysis of distributed acoustic sensing data for time-lapse vertical seismic profiling and multiphase flow monitoring.

What are your plans after graduation? I will be working as a geophysicist focusing on the application of distributed fiber-optic sensing for enhanced geothermal systems at Fervo Energy.

Congratulations to Owen Huff on receiving Honorable Mention for Best Paper in The Leading Edge in 2020 for his paper “Validating the origin of microseismic events in target reservoir using guided waves recorded by DAS”.

(https://doi.org/10.1190/tle39110776.1)

Due to the special velocity structure of the Eagle Ford formation, only the microseismic events inside or close to the reservoir excite strong guided wave energy, which DAS can capture and identify. This method differentiates events that are most related to stimulation and production, significantly reducing event location uncertainty. This method also makes it feasible to use a single straight fiber to locate the microseismic events significant to Eagle Ford optimization. 

Owen defended his Master’s thesis in May 2021 and became a proud RCP alumnus. We wish him great success in his future career!

The March 2022 issue of Hart Energy’s Oil & Gas Investor featured an article covering RCP’s current research program.

See the article here

 

August 29

Dr. Ali Tura: A new method to realize dynamic reservoir properties from 4D seismic data: A North Sea application, TL1 1: Advances and Case Studies, 8:50 AM

Peiyao Li: Predicting fracture-hit time and location: A Cross-well strain-based early warning system, STUD P2: Student Poster Session 2, 10:20 AM

David Herman: Static modeling and characterization of deep saline aquifers with limited data for carbon sequestration, STUD P4: Student Poster Session 4, 10:20 AM

Burak Erdinc: 3D characterization for CO2 geo-sequestration using a high-resolution seismic survey: Powder River Basin, Wyoming, USA, STUD P1: Student Poster Session 1, 11:10 AM

Dr. Ali Tura: The CCUS landscape and vital role of geophysics, SS 3: Recent Advances and the Road Ahead: Hot Topics in Geoscience 1, 2:10 PM

August 30

Ana Garcia-Ceballos: Monitoring a gas hydrate field with distributed temperature Sensing for long-term well integrity, BH P1: Borehole Geophysics for Carbon Storage, 11:10 AM

Dr. Yanrui Ning: Coupled fluid-geomechanical modeling for a large-scale CO2 sequestration project in Southern Colorado, CO2 2: Modeling and Simulation, 1:45 PM

Samara Omar: Imaging the horizontal components of OBN data, SP P8: Elastic, Diffraction, and Marchenko Imaging, 4:55 PM

August 31

Peiyao Li: DAS-recorded P wave generated from perforation shot: an insight from numerical simulation, DAS 2: Seismic Analysis and Inversion, 10:45 AM

Dr. Yanrui Ning: Investigation on the azimuth variation and propagation of hydraulic fractures using low-frequency distributed acoustic sensing (LF-DAS), DAS 3: Low-frequency DAS and Strain Sensing, 1:45 PM

THE COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES GEOPHYSICS DEPARTMENT IS PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE AN ONLINE ENERGY GEOPHYSICS CERTIFICATE

The Petroleum Geophysics Certificate fills the gap between a graduate degree and an industry course. It is taught by industry-renowned Mines faculty with vast experience in the technical areas. Fully on-line, deployed world-wide, and with Mines course credits, this certificate can be extremely valuable for the individual and for any company that wants an in-depth education for staff and management at an exceptional value. 

https://online.mines.edu/pg/