Research team of Prof. Changsoo Shin, developed high-image resolution technique for petroleum-exploration

- improve the seismic exploration success rate of the oil-rich region to 5 to 10 times , can be applied to East Sea continental shelf

▲ Prof. Changsoo Shin of Seoul National University Dept. of Energy Resources Engineering

Seoul National University (Dean Kunwoo Lee) announced on June 26 that SNU Geophysical Prospecting Laboratory led by Prof. Chansoo Shin of Dept. of Energy Resources Engineering succeeded in making high-resolution images of petroleum-rich regions using elastic seismic waves.
Elastic seismic wave data refers to the recording of wave signals returned back from the underground strata. In order to make high-resolution image of underground structure, elastic seismic wave velocity should be accurately calculated.

Prof. Shin said, "The conventional underground structure image technique could not stably calculate the elastic wave velocity model. In particular, it was difficult to calculate an accurate image for a model when there is a significance wave velocity difference between source such as salt rock and the background. Therefore, a new technique was required to overcome the limitation of the old models.”

To solve this problem, the researchers proposed a so-called "sequentially ordered frequency strategy" which sequentially increase frequency data from low to high frequency and then applies velocity calculation model. The achievements have already been published in 2010 in Geophysical Journal International, 181, 935-950 (2010), which is the world's most authoritative academic journal in the field of geophysical exploration ('Sequentially ordered single-frequency 2-D acoustic inversion in the Laplace-Fourier domain”).

The sequential frequency strategy makes all frequency components evenly reflected in the velocity calculation model. This allows a more accurate velocity model to be computed, as well as a constant velocity model for various initial conditions.

Recently, the researchers have succeeded in calculating the velocities more stably ​​that have significant differences by applying the sequentially ordered frequency strategy to the seismic data obtained from the field. Furthermore, the accuracy and resolution of the underground image were also improved significantly.

This research is expected to contribute greatly to the development of oil exploration. In fact, global petroleum service companies such as BGP * and ION Geophysical ** have recognized the practicality and creativity of the research results, and commercialization is under review in domestic and overseas petroleum development and service companies. It was also registered as an international patent in May last year.

"By applying the newly proposed sequentially ordered frequency strategy, we can improve the seismic exploration success rate of the oil-rich region to 5 to 10 times. If we apply this technology to the exploration of the East Sea continental shelf through cooperation with the Korea National Oil Corporation, we could evaluate the possibility of the domestic petroleum reserves." said Prof. Shin. 

This study was carried out with the support of the Korea Energy Technology Evaluation & Assistance (KETEP) funded by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy for 10 years.

Meanwhile, Prof. Shin received his Ph.D. in Geophysics from the University of Tulsa in the US and became an assistant professor in the Department of Earth System and Environmental Engineering, Seoul National University in 1996. He has been a professor of Dept. of Energy Resources Engineering since 2006. He is a full member of the Korean Academy of Engineering Sciences and the Exploration Geophysical Society (SEG), and an editor of the Journal of Seismic Exploration, a well-known journal in the field of earth science. He has also been awarded the NAS (National Academy of Sciences) award and the Educators Award by Seoul National University.
 

[Term explanation]
* BGP: Ground energy exploration company, A subsidiary of CNPC (China National Petroleum Corporation, China), the second largest oil company in the world as of 2015
** ION: Geophysical specialist company with annual revenue of KRW 250 billion (as of 2015)