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/.

Julian Chenin calls IMAGE “Disneyland for geoscience,” and after walking the exhibition floor it is easy to understand what he means. But for ROGII, the real value is what happens when people stop at the booth, pull out a notebook, and start sketching an idea together. Julian describes it as innovation happening in real time, with people from different parts of the subsurface workflow suddenly in the same conversation.

Those conversations have mattered as ROGII has grown from a company focused mainly on geosteering into a much broader part of the subsurface workflow. This year Julian is hearing renewed interest in older assets, northern Brazil, Guyana, Africa, the Gulf of Mexico, and underdeveloped unconventional plays. His point is that exhibiting is not simply about showing what you already built. Sometimes the conversations on the floor help determine what you should build next.

LINKS

* Attend IMAGE '26 - www.imageevent.org/

* Listen to Inside IMAGE Podcast Series - www.imageevent.org/podcast

Companies have spent years storing more and more data, but Amii Rozell and Hana Kabazi make an important distinction: saving the final answer is not the same as saving why you made the decision. Three years later, the interpretation may still be there while the lease problem, environmental concern, rejected idea, meeting discussion, or uncertainty behind it has disappeared. AI can help recover that context, but it can also sound very sure of itself when the record has holes.

That leads to one of the most useful AI conversations I heard at IMAGE. Amii says companies are doing plenty of explaining about what AI is, but not enough training on how employees should actually use it. Hana’s advice is essentially the same thing teachers have always asked for: prove it. Ask where the answer came from, ask what the model does not know, understand the difference between public tools and protected enterprise systems, and do your own research before turning an AI inference into an operational decision.

LINKS

* Attend IMAGE '26 - www.imageevent.org/

* Listen to Inside IMAGE Podcast Series - www.imageevent.org/podcast

Geoscientists Without Borders starts with a simple idea: geoscience can improve someone’s life. Jim Funk has seen what access to clean water can mean in African communities, while Craig Beasley talks about projects that help people prepare for earthquakes and volcanoes, recover forgotten burial sites near Houston, and give students the experience of using geoscience for something deeply human.

Twenty years in, GWB does not have a shortage of ideas or need. Craig and Jim say dozens of proposals can arrive when only a handful can be supported. That makes funding one of the central challenges now. More money could mean larger grants, longer projects, and work capable of reaching far more people. GWB has already shown what geoscientists can do. The question is how much more becomes possible if the profession and industry chooses to back it.

LINKS

* Geoscientists Without Borders - https://seg.org/programs/geoscientists-without-borders/

* Attend IMAGE '26 - www.imageevent.org/

* Listen to Inside IMAGE Podcast Series - www.imageevent.org/podcast

This one is personal for me. I worked with Reinaldo Michelena, Lucía Torrado, and Sergio Chávez-Pérez on this project for years, and after more than a decade of effort, seeing a printed Spanish edition of Robert Sheriff’s Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Geophysics at IMAGE was genuinely moving.

More than 140 volunteers helped turn thousands of technical terms and hundreds of figures into a book for geoscientists who work in Spanish every day. And this was intentionally human work. No AI translation. People from across the Spanish-speaking world debated terminology, challenged regional bias, redrew figures, wrote code, and kept showing up until the book was real.

Some of the people who helped make it possible, including Sven Treitel, Héctor Alfonso, and Susan Stamm, did not live to see the finished book. That gives this accomplishment a weight that goes far beyond publishing a dictionary. By the end of the conversation, Reinaldo, Lucía, and Sergio are reflecting on friendship, professional growth, and what it means to spend years working on such a meaningful project.

You can now buy the book at https://seg.users.membersuite.com/shop/store/d0d8e919-00ce-c66d-7897-0b4a1c8da055/detail!

The SEG & AAPG Women’s Network brought together six leaders for a conversation on technical leadership and decision-making in complex energy environments. The panel focused on what happens as technical experts take on greater responsibility, where decisions cannot wait for perfect information and leadership increasingly depends on understanding people as well as the work.

A few ideas that stood out from the panel:

* Patricia de Lugão: Good managers are people who know the subject.

* Rachael Moreland: Even a degree in neuroscience has helped shape her path in geoscience.

* Lorena Moscardelli: Procrastinate. Sometimes what first looks like noise becomes signal.

* Marianne Rauch: You cannot get to 100 percent certainty. At some point, you have to say, “Enough.”

* Allison Kennedy Thurmond: Be intentional. Be ready with Plan B and Plan C.

* Tai Prince: Not everyone thinks like you. Remember that when dealing with a difficult challenge or colleague.

After the panel, I continued the conversation with Patricia de Lugão and Allison Kennedy Thurmond. This is a true Inside IMAGE episode, as Patricia, Allison, and I built on what was shared on the panel in real time. Even with that impromptu feel, there are meaningful tips and well-earned wisdom throughout.

For the full description of the Women’s Network Executive Panel and biographies of all six panelists, visit https://www.imageevent.org/special-events/special-session-panel-session/high-impact-technical-leadership-executive-decision-making-in-complex-energy-environments. And a special thanks to the moderator of the panel, Maria Angela Capello.

LINKS

* Attend IMAGE '26 - www.imageevent.org/

* View the Inside IMAGE '26 Podcast Schedule - public.3.basecamp.com/p/LETDMZk3GvZ42PzjQMdmY7in

* Listen to Inside IMAGE Podcast Series - www.imageevent.org/podcast