Seismic Soundoff

“The goal is not cheaper data. The goal is to spend less on everything that does not add value to the decision one is trying to make.”

Low-cost monitoring is becoming less about cheaper sensors and more about designing geophysics around the decision that needs to be made.

Guest editors Erkan Ay and Joël Le Calvez use the The Leading Edge special section, "Low-cost monitoring for oil and gas production and emerging energies" to show what that looks like in practice, from DAS that makes fracture monitoring viable without a dedicated monitoring well to targeted measurements that act as an early-warning system.

Their argument is especially relevant in a tight-budget environment. Monitoring can become more routine and accessible, but only if geophysicists measure the right physics, automate intelligently, and remember that data itself is not the product. Decisions are.

Read June's The Leading Edge special section at https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/tle/issue/45/6.

QUESTIONS THIS CONVERSATION ANSWERS
> How can monitoring shift from repeated full-field imaging to targeted, decision-driven measurements?
> When can DAS and simpler monitoring systems make projects observable that otherwise would go unmonitored?
> Why should monitoring cost be judged by the actionable information it produces rather than acquisition cost alone?

ABOUT SEISMIC SOUNDOFF
Seismic Soundoff showcases conversations addressing the challenges of energy, water, and climate. Produced by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and hosted by Andrew Geary of 51 features, these episodes celebrate and inspire the geophysicists of today and tomorrow. Three new episodes monthly. See the full archive at https://seg.org/resources/podcast/.

“Machine learning over the last few years has become revolutionary. But we still need, and maybe even more so, the constraint and knowledge of rock physics and QI as an integral part of those workflows.”

Stephan Gelinsky describes quantitative interpretation as the place “where science meets business impact.” That idea anchors this conversation with Stephan and Per Avseth, built around the May quantitative interpretation special section of The Leading Edge.

Elastic FWI and machine learning are moving quickly into QI, but both guests argue that better algorithms make rock physics, geology, and judgment more important, not less.

Per also points to a broader challenge. Some students are turning away from reservoir geophysics because they associate it with petroleum, even though the same science is needed for CCS, geothermal, critical minerals, natural hydrogen, and other subsurface problems tied to the energy transition.

The question is not whether QI still matters. It is how the field keeps its physics, communicates uncertainty, and shows the next generation where that science can take them.

Read May's The Leading Edge special section at https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/tle/issue/45/5.

QUESTIONS THIS CONVERSATION ANSWERS
> How are elastic FWI and machine learning changing the role of QI specialists?
> What makes a QI result trustworthy enough to support a real decision?
> Why does QI remain foundational to CCS, geothermal, critical minerals, and other energy-transition problems?

ABOUT SEISMIC SOUNDOFF
Seismic Soundoff showcases conversations addressing the challenges of energy, water, and climate. Produced by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and hosted by Andrew Geary of 51 features, these episodes celebrate and inspire the geophysicists of today and tomorrow. Three new episodes monthly. See the full archive at https://seg.org/resources/podcast/.

“We really need to be able to explain in clear language and with vivid examples just what geophysics can do here.”

Michael B. Helgerud and Manika Prasad approach CCUS monitoring from two useful angles: Mike as an operator and Manika as an academic. Using their The Leading Edge special section on geophysics for CCUS as a starting point, they examine what monitoring must prove to operators, regulators, and communities as projects scale.

Mike emphasizes containment, pressure, storage capacity, and fit-for-risk surveillance. Manika points to major gaps in shared calibration data, basin-wide stress models, and especially the willingness to share mistakes and lessons learned.

Together, they argue that better technology alone will not settle the challenge. Geophysicists must combine different measurements more effectively, plan for decades of stewardship, and understand that communities may experience storage risk very differently from the scientists and operators evaluating it.

Read April's The Leading Edge special section at https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/tle/issue/45/4.

QUESTIONS THIS CONVERSATION ANSWERS
> What must geophysics demonstrate for operators, regulators, and communities to trust CO2 storage?
> Why is sharing calibration data, mistakes, and lessons learned essential to scaling CCUS monitoring?
> How should monitoring change when CO2 storage must remain secure for decades rather than a single project phase?

ABOUT SEISMIC SOUNDOFF
Seismic Soundoff showcases conversations addressing the challenges of energy, water, and climate. Produced by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and hosted by Andrew Geary of 51 features, these episodes celebrate and inspire the geophysicists of today and tomorrow. Three new episodes monthly. See the full archive at https://seg.org/resources/podcast/.

Geoscience needs more people who can solve problems across energy, water, climate, critical minerals, and the subsurface, yet departments are losing students, funding, and in some cases the field experiences that help build strong geologists.

Esther Oyedele and Dolores van der Kolk discuss what they heard across IMAGE about that disconnect and why solving it will take more than recruitment. Students need to see a wider range of geoscience careers, universities need flexibility without weakening the fundamentals, and industry and professional societies need to help support the training, field work, and access that make those careers possible.

The workforce problem is visible. Many of the solutions are visible too. The question is whether the geoscience community is willing to support them.

Listen to the complete Inside IMAGE Podcast Series at https://www.imageevent.org/podcast.

“We always aim for 60 percent. The other 40 percent, we are ready to make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and then move forward.”

A 600-meter carbonate platform forced Dr. Ahmad Riza Ghazali and his PETRONAS team to reconsider a basic assumption in their seismic workflow.

Acoustic FWI and reverse time migration could not adequately image the layers beneath it, while 3D distributed acoustic sensing revealed extensive P-to-S mode conversion at the carbonate boundary. That evidence led the team toward multiparameter elastic FWI. And images that Ahmad says helped support successful drilling.

His SEG Pacific South Honorary Lecture, Next Generation Seismic Imaging Elastic FWI and Wavefield Solutions for Seeing Through Complex Carbonates, turns that experience into a regional argument. As exploration moves toward deeper Miocene carbonates, better physics may expose plays conventional imaging misses. The remaining challenge is economic and organizational because elastic FWI costs substantially more, requires teams to learn together, and asks decision-makers to invest before the outcome is certain.

See Ahmad's upcoming schedule and register at https://seg.org/education/lectures/seg-honorary-lecture-ahmad-ghazali/.

QUESTIONS THIS CONVERSATION ANSWERS
* What does mode conversion reveal that acoustic FWI misses beneath thick carbonates?
* How did 3D DAS change the team’s understanding of a failed imaging result?
* What gives decision-makers enough confidence to drill from an emerging workflow?

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ABOUT SEISMIC SOUNDOFF
Seismic Soundoff showcases conversations addressing the challenges of energy, water, and climate. Produced by the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) and hosted by Andrew Geary of 51 features, these episodes celebrate and inspire the geophysicists of today and tomorrow. Three new episodes monthly. See the full archive at https://seg.org/resources/podcast/.