RCP connects sponsor field data, student research, and advanced geophysical methods to improve reservoir characterization. Based at Colorado School of Mines, our consortium brings together geophysics, geology, petrophysics, and petroleum engineering to address practical subsurface challenges.

Since 1985, RCP has partnered with industry to develop and test methods on field datasets. Students and faculty integrate complementary observations to improve reservoir understanding, inform development decisions, and share research findings, methods, and workflows with sponsors.

Field Projects

• Fasken Ranch, Permian Basin, Texas — Fasken Oil and Ranch
• Bakken Mariner, Williston Basin, North Dakota — ExxonMobil
• Gulf of Mexico, Offshore U.S. — CCUS with Fairfield Geotechnologies; long-offset OBN with TGS; 4D DAS VSP with Shell
• Edvard Grieg Field, North Sea — Aker BP
• Gorgon Project, Offshore Australia — OBN elastic full-waveform inversion with Chevron

R&D Projects

• Unconventional Reservoir Characterization — Integrating geology, seismic, DAS, and microseismic data to understand hydraulic-fracture behavior and reservoir performance.
• Seismic Imaging and Inversion — Elastic full-waveform inversion, multicomponent data integration, and advanced seismic computing.
• Distributed Fiber-Optic Sensing — DAS, DTS, and DSS for reservoir characterization and monitoring.
• Machine Learning and Agentic AI — Seismic denoising, reservoir property prediction, and reusable AI-assisted research workflows.
• CCUS and Geothermal Monitoring — Characterizing fluid pathways and monitoring subsurface changes using seismic and fiber-optic observations.