Since our last Quarterly Insights (June) we have had several new developments at Geophysical Insights. I'm pleased to report that our 'ZeroRisk' trial methodology has taken off and analysis is now being done worldwide using our Unsupervised Neural Network technology. Those of you seeking to know more about our ZeroRisk methodology are invited to visit the website via the link to the right, or contact Hal Green, Director of Business Development, at 713.480.2260 or hal.green@geoinsights.com.

The subject of Unsupervised Neural Networks applied to seismic interpretation also continues to gain the attention of the energy editors. For your quick reference, here are links to a couple of online articles published in September:

• Offshore Magazine, "Interview with Dr. Tom Smith: Neural network notices anomalies in seismic data" 
• Offshore Magazine, "Seismic attribute analysis can benefit from unsupervised neural network"
• Oilfield Technology, "Advancing Seismic Research with Modular Frameworks"

Also, in this issue of Quarterly Insights I am happy to introduce a new contributor and a key member of our team: Ken Cooley, a consultant to Geophysical Insights, highlights the role of the Professional Petroleum Data Model (PPDM) in our product development plans. Ken and others are leading an industry-wide, open initiative to incorporate information on seismic data into the industry-standard PPDM. I invite you to read Ken's piece below and feel free to respond directly with Ken on this exciting development. A link to Ken's white paper on this subject is available under Resources (right).  

Thanks for your continuing interest.

As part of our technology development program we needed an industry standard data model for storing information about seismic post stack trace data (meta data). PPDM (Professional Petroleum Data Model) was chosen because it is comprehensive, open, and supported. It also supports any kind of Petroleum industry data in one database. Other applications can access the data, and there is ongoing work to refine and further develop the data model. Initially, the complexity of the Seismic data model was a concern. There are many ways of representing the same information. This discrepancy can result in disconnects between different implementations of the same PPDM module.

We propose a method of populating seismic survey meta data that resolves this confusion about which PPDM tables to use for which pieces of meta data about Seismic 2D and 3D post stack seismic trace data files.

We selected specific PPDM Seismic, Reference, and Records Management tables that were suitable for the requirements. The selected tables fit together well given the relationships between them, resulting in accurate storage and retrieval of the needed data.

This pattern of populating seismic survey meta data allows us to unambiguously store and access the data in a PPDM database in a standard way.

Other companies could use this method to enable sharing of seismic survey meta data among different software applications. This sharing would support better integration, with fewer data exchange obstacles. Our hope is to provide a good start on "best practices" for seismic meta data storage. To learn more about PPDM please download the white paper link to the right under 'Resources'.  

Ken Cooley joined Geophysical Insights in 2010 as Data Management Development Consultant. Cooley is developing the company's data base which is implemented using the industry standard PPDM data model (Professional Petroleum Data Management Association).

Prior to joining Geophysical Insights Cooley spent 4 years with Seismic Micro Technology as software engineer and data management development team lead. Previous work includes software engineering and team lead roles with Landmark Graphics' OpenWorks and ADT products and Schlumberger's GeoFrame and Well site products.

Cooley is also the founder and chair of the PPDM Seismic Implementation Special Interest Group, responsible for identifying best practices in the industry for implementing Seismic data storage in PPDM. He received a Bachelor's degree in Physics from McNeese State University, and a Master's degree in Software Engineering from the University of Houston/Clear Lake. Cooley is a member of ACM and PPDM.