June 2008 Newsletter
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A message from the President
Firstly the committee would like to extend great thanks to Mark Knackstedt of the Australian National University for presenting on "Digital Core Technology" in May. Mark presented the current state-of-play in 3D imaging and visualisation of porous rock material and showed how these models can be used to predict many Petrophysical properties such as porosity, permeability, electrical properties and multiphase properties such as capillary pressure and relative permeability, albeit at a fine scale. This meeting was very well attended and sparked great debate from the audience on the whole subject of imaging and property extraction. I was struck by an analogy to aerodynamics: if core analysis is like an empirical wind tunnel test, then the work Mark presented was the equivalent of computational fluid dynamics (CFD), a technique that has revolutionised that particular discipline. It will be interesting to see how techniques such as those presented by Mark play out over the coming years!
Mark went on to present at the SPWLA Symposium in Edinburgh at the end of May, and I
hope he similarly impressed the audience therein. Joanne Tudge, our PhD part sponsored
student (along with ConocoPhilips) also gave a poster presentation at the Sympoium on her
work (presented at the LPS Meeting in April) on "Integrating Geology and Petrophysics to
Identify Conductive Clays in a Hydrocarbon Reservoir." Well done Joanne in extending
presentation of your work to a wider audience. A number of other LPS members presented at
the Symposium so I'd like to extend an offer; please consider presenting at an LPS meeting at
some point in the future also for the benefit of those who could not make it to Edinburgh.
The next LPS event will be the June 26th one-day seminar on "The Use of Statistics in
Formation Evaluation." We have finalised an agenda, confirming talks from a number of
sources in the oil company, consultancy and academic communities on a wide range of
relevant subjects. For more details see below in the newsletter and please consider attending,
I'm sure it will be an informative and worthwhile day.
Regards
Jonathan Lean LPS President
From VP Newsletter, Adam Moss:
The agenda for the one day seminar on "The Use of Statistics in Formation Evaluation" at the
Geological Society on Thursday 26th June has been set and the speakers are all primed for
action. See seminar agenda below and registration form is attached to this message. I would
encourage you to attend what promises to be a very interesting day.
Congratulations to Mike Lovell for receiving the Distinguished Service Award at the
SPWLA symposium in Edinburgh. As a past president and good friend of the LPS I am sure
you will all be interested to read the following citation from SPWLA.
SPWLA DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD - Mike Lovell
Mike has a BSc degree in Geological Geophysics with Mathematics from Reading
University, and an MSc (Marine Geotechnics) and PhD (Physical Properties of Sediments)
from the University of Wales. In 1984 he became involved in ocean drilling while at the
University of Nottingham; he participated as a downhole logging scientist in the eastern
equatorial Pacific and soon after established Borehole Research with Peter Harvey. In 1989,
offshore Japan with Philippe Pezard, he used downhole electrical borehole images for the
first time in ODP, returning to the University of Leicester where, with the exception of a year
in Brazil at the Federal University of Para in Belem, he has remained.
Mike served on the committee of the London Petrophysical Society as Vice President External Relations (1998-1999) prior to being President (1999-2001) and Past President (2001-2003), and was Vice President (Publications) of SPWLA (2002-04) and Editor of Petrophysics (2002-03). He has been an SPWLA Distinguished Speaker and a steering committee member for the SPWLA Topical Conference on Thin Beds. He currently chairs the Scientific Technology Panel for the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program and in this role has been closely involved in the development of laboratories and downhole capabilities on the new Japanese riser ship, the CHIKYU, the refurbishment of the US non-riser vessel, the JOIDES Resolution, and Mission Specific Platforms in the Arctic and Tahiti.
Mike's research interests are varied, from borehole imaging to gas hydrates, electrical properties to facies based petrophysics. More recently he has returned to acoustics to investigate bio-inspiration in better characterising reservoir rocks. Mike has co-authored 6 edited volumes, more than 80 peer reviewed papers, and 90 conference papers. In addition he is keen on emphasising the importance of linking geology to petrophysical evaluations, and believes that field-based petrophysics teaching can often deliver a better understanding of petrophysical concepts and techniques.
More recently Mike's interests have extended to petrophysics in the kitchen, utilising
petrophysical knowledge and properties to explore the secrets of baking and cooking; indeed
he often exchanges recipes and novel ideas with petrophysicists around the globe; after all
cooking and baking are really just the tasteful application of petrophysics... the physics of
solids and fluids at varying temperatures and pressures! Indeed, his family frequently
comment on how his cooking is often experimental, and rarely follows any predefined recipe!
Of course, as with all petrophysical estimates, not everyone is always in complete agreement
with the results.