Earlier this week, the global energy group Shell announced its Russian division has inked an agreement with Russian company Antel-Oil on joint research into the development of software to process 3D seismic prospecting data.
The agreement is reported to be Shell’s investment contribution to a Russian project called the “Creation of supercomputer technologies for seismic prospecting on scattered waves,” which will be realized by Technologies of Inverse Problems, Ltd., an Antel-Oil subsidiary and resident of the Skolkovo innovation hub outside Moscow.
The researchers will focus on developing new algorithms and software products designed to isolate a scattered component of seismic waves. The key objective is to create “new supercomputing methods for processing three-dimensional seismic data,” which will provide information contained in the component they are attempting to isolate, according to Technologies of Inverse Problems, Ltd.
By analyzing these scattered seismic waves, the researchers aim to learn where and how to explore and develop hydrocarbon deposits in fractured-cavernous type reservoirs. Fractured-cavernous deposits are a type of deposit that can’t be isolated with the conventional reflection pulse-based seismic prospecting techniques that oil companies use today.
The partners believe their research is growing in importance as international oil companies gear up to develop new, hard-to-recover hydrocarbon reserves, including those in shale deposits.
