DAVID FOREL
 
Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences
Michigan Technological University
1400 Townsend Dr.
Houghton, MI   49931
906-370-3152
dforel@mtu.edu
http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~dforel/resume.htm

EDUCATION

July 2006           Ph.D. Geological Engineering, Michigan Technological University
                                  "Inverting Multi-component Time-lapse Seismic Data for Fluid Phases and Pressure in Hydrocarbon Reservoirs"

Dec. 1986           M.S. Geophysics, University of Houston
                                  "Dip Moveout Correction in Two and Three Dimensions"

May 1981           B.S. Physics, California State University, Long Beach

EMPLOYMENT

Jan. 1998 - Aug. 2002   Senior Geophysicist (Training/Documentation)

Petroleum Geo-Services, Houston, Texas

Taught use of in-house processing tools to employees in Houston, London, Oslo, and Perth. Organized courses and taught data processing to clients. Wrote seismic data processing and database-orientation training guides. Created and maintained intranet web sites for Training department and two processing groups. Wrote an XML prototype to upgrade data processing user guides from text format to web format. Investigated project planning (CMU-SEI and PMI’s PMBOK®) for Software and Research Departments.

Jan. 1992 - Jan. 1998   Geophysicist (Documentation Coordinator)

Western Atlas International, Inc., Houston, Texas

Edited all seismic data processing user guides for geophysical validity and readability using vi editor and FrameMaker.

Jan. 1987 - Jan. 1992   Geophysicist (Programmer)

Western Geophysical Co., Houston, Texas

Maintained and developed VSP and surface seismic programs. Wrote interactive processes and plotter code. Wrote a complete suite of sonic log processing programs. Contributed to R&D department projects.

TEACHING

Fall 2001:   Lecturer, Michigan Technological University

GE 4600: Seismic Data Processing and Interpretation
GE 4993: Seminar -- Seismic Migration

PH.D. THESIS

The first stage is processing marine seismic data sets to see amplitude variation with offset (AVO) effects within the reservoir of interest. The reservoir of interest in the Teal South field (in the Gulf of Mexico's Eugene Island block 354) is at 4500' depth. The second stage is interpreting the AVO data sets to isolate the 4500' sand reservoir. The third stage is using the interpreted reservoir to compute rock properties such as pressure and fluid content (%brine, %oil, %gas) within the reservoir.

Seismic sources are marine air guns; receivers are hydrophones and three-component geophones on the ocean floor. The available seismic data sets are P-waves (P-waves down to reflectors, P-waves back to receivers) and C-waves (P-waves down to reflectors, S-waves back to receivers). This reservoir has been studied by others, but detailed studies using the C-wave data have not yet been done.

TOOLS

Current and past research tools are JCL, FORTRAN, MathWorks' Matlab, C, CSM CWP's Seismic Un*x, Landmark's ProMAX, Schlumberger GeoQuest's Geonet, Schlumberger's Interactive Petrophysics, Jason Geosystems.

PUBLICATIONS,   PRESENTATIONS

Books

Forel, D., Benz, T., Pennington, W.D., 2005, Seismic Data Processing with Seismic Un*x, SEG, Tulsa, OK.

Forel, D. (Editor), 1993, Interpretation at the Well-tie, Geophysical Society of Houston, Houston, TX.

Journal Articles and Peer-Reviewed Works

Gardner, G.H.F., and Forel, D., 1990, Amplitude preservation equations for dip moveout: GEOPHYSICS, 55, 485-487.

Forel, D., and Gardner, G.H.F., 1988, A three-dimensional perspective on two-dimensional dip moveout: GEOPHYSICS, 53, 604-610.

Gardner, G.H.F., and Forel, D., 1987, Connections between rock properties and seismic data, in Worthington, M., Ed., Deconvolution and Inversion: Blackwell Scientific, 338-348.

Conference Presentations with Published Abstracts

Forel, D., Benz, T., Pennington, W.D., 2004, Teaching Reflection Seismic Processing, AGU, San Francisco, ED33A-0767.

Pennington, W.D. and Forel, D., 2003, Views of Rock Physics in a Ternary Space, 65th Mtg.: EAGE, Stavanger, Norway, C10, (http://www.geo.mtu.edu/~dforel/ternary/PenningtonForelEAGE2003.pdf).

Pennington, W.D., Minaeva, A., Haataja, J., Xie, D., Len, S., Green, A., Matelski, A., Forel, D., 2001, Establishing Confidence in the Physical Basis of Seismic Attributes, EAGE/SEG Research Workshop on Reservoir Rocks, Pau France.

Book Reviews

Williams, J.M., Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace, Technical Communication, 53, 117-118.

Royal, B., The Little Red Writing Book: 20 Powerful Principles of Structure, Style, & Readability, Technical Communication, 53, 117-118.

Cantor, G., and Shuttleworth, S., Eds., Science Serialized: Representations of the Sciences in Nineteenth-century Periodicals, Technical Communication, 2005, 52, 374-375.

Tofts, D., Jonson, A., and Cavallaro, A., Eds., Prefiguring Cyberculture: An Intellectual History, Technical Communication, 2004, 51, 556-557.

HONORS

DeVlieg Foundation Scholarship, 2002.

SEG: Honorable Mention for best paper in Geophysics, 1988.

PARTICIPATION

Organizer: SPE/SEG Joint Forum -- Well-Less Exploration and Minimal Appraisal; 28 June - 2 July, 2004

Treasurer: Geophysical Society of Houston, 1995-1996

Technical Program Committee: SEG Annual Meeting, Houston, Texas; 1995

Associate Editor, GEOPHYSICS, (SEG): 1993-1995

ORGANIZATIONS

AAPG - American Association of Petroleum Geologists

AGU - American Geophysical Union

CSEG - Canadian Society of Exploration Geophysicists

EAGE - European Association of Exploration Geoscientists

SEG - Society of Exploration Geophysicists

SPE - Society of Petroleum Engineers

STC - Society for Technical Communication