Wednesday, April 21, 2010

CG begins its 20th year!

[Nota Bene: this post is essentially a re-post (with a small number of changes) of "We Really Know Our SCAT!" from April 29, 2008.]

On March 1, 2010, Computational Geology ("CG") began its 20th year of service to the E&P industry. For a few years prior to that, Deformation, Inc., the predecessor to CG, provided SCAT analysis services to the industry. In short, at CG we've been doing SCAT analysis for roughly 25 years.

When CG introduced the first version of Geodes in 1990, it was one of the very first commercial software packages to incorporate SCAT (if not the first). From Day #1 it has been our philosophy that SCAT is essential for complete, accurate analysis of dip data--from borehole images as well as conventional dipmeter curves, from hand-picked data as well as machine-picked data.

With Andy Bengtson, the inventor of SCAT, we've given oral and poster presentations at AAPG meetings on "What is wrong with tadpole plots?" (Morse and Bengtson, 1988), "No dip or low dip?" (Morse and Bengtson, 1989), and "SCAT dipmeter rules for interpretation of thrust belt kink-fold and detachment structures" (Bengtson and Morse, 1990). (Full citations for these references can be found here.)

As we implemented SCAT in our Geodes program, we introduced novel extensions to SCAT, as described in "Extending SCAT: additional techniques for identifying domain boundaries and determining how azimuth frequency distribution varies with depth" (Morse and Goldberg, 1990a). Within Geodes, we integrated SCAT with isogon-based cross sections to enable users and managers to see What's Really Down There*. (See "GEODES: An interactive, SCAT-based program for complete structural interpretation of dip data" [Morse and Goldberg, 1990b].) To further enable users and managers to see What's Really Down There*, we added to Geodes the ability to convert isogon-based cross sections to local structure maps. Thus, Geodes goes far Beyond SCAT*.

More recently, we presented "Re-interpretation of the north flank of the Qarun Field (Western Desert, Egypt), based on SCAT analysis and reprocessing of the A-17 dipmeter data" at the November 2007 AAPG meeting in Athens (see here and here), a case history describing how we used SCAT and Geodes to identify and correct serious problems with a set of machine-picked dip data from a key well in the steep flank of Qarun Field.

Our licensees are using Geodes around the world, from the subsalt Gulf of Suez, Egypt (Sercombe and others, 1997), to the subsalt / deepwater Gulf of Mexico, to the Canadian Foothills.

Through our Geodes-based 3D Dip* services, Computational Geology also provides Geodes analyses on a consulting basis. Over the years, we've provided Geodes analyses:
  • To small, mid-sized, and large companies alike;

  • In both extensional and compressional terranes; and

  • In both simple and complex structural settings, especially where seismic is fair or poor (e.g., below salt and beneath major faults and unconformities) and where important structural elements (e.g., faults) fall below the limits of seismic resolution.
If you choose CG as your supplier of dip-analysis software and consulting services, you'll be partnering with a firm that has been working with SCAT for over 20 years, a firm that recognized from the get-go that SCAT is essential for accurate, complete analysis of geological dip data, a firm that has been active in extending SCAT and converting SCAT results to cross sections and structure maps, and a firm that has been applying all these techniques around the world to all kinds of structural problems in all kinds of geological settings.

We Really Know Our SCAT* and with that knowledge we'll help you to see What's Really Down There*.

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* 3D Dip, Beyond SCAT, We Really Know Our SCAT, What's Really Down There, and Geodes are Marks and Trademarks of Computational Geology, Inc.

Geodes 3.00 (gamma) for RHEL/X86

Geodes 3.00 (gamma) for RHEL/X86 was distributed to a small number of customer sites on March 29.

The gamma release differs from the previous, beta release in that the gamma release reads binary data and journal files created on Solaris/Sparc as well as those created on RHEL/X86, whereas the beta release only reads binary data and journal files created on RHEL/X86. In short, the gamma release is compatible with old projects created with Solaris/Sparc versions of Geodes as well as new projects created with the RHEL/X86 version.

If no significant issues are reported by May 1, the gamma release will become the production release of Geodes 3.00 for RHEL/X86 and it will be available at no extra charge to all customers who (1) wish to replace their Solaris/Sparc versions of Geodes with Geodes 3.00 for RHEL/X86 and (2) are current with respect to payment of Maintenance Service Charges.