I am a geophysicist with an enthusiasm for everything from open water diving to drones and gardening!
I remember vividly when I first saw hundreds of oil-producing nodding donkeys dotted in a residential neighbourhood as a kid and then the transformative impact on the local villages of having access to a reliable and high-density energy source.
Although it came with a new set of environmental impacts it led to a step-change improvement in their lives from burning biomass and enabled widespread electrification. Since then, I’ve always wanted to get involved and make tangible contributions to the energy industry and that’s why I decided to study geophysics.
My undergrad courses gave exposure to a wide range of geophysical topics, geology, electro-magnetic methods, drilling and logging and the mathematical methods used for modelling. Later during my MSc, I studied numerical modelling in much more depth, particularly wave equation modelling using finite-difference methods for complex media. I designed an acoustic lens with curled slits and managed to achieve the total transmission predicted in that case by the analytical solution.
The collaborative work environment, the drive to challenge existing solutions and the feel of community are the top three reasons that make me call CGG home.
As the problems we geoscientists encounter are getting more complex, the team culture at CGG gives you the opportunity to be part of something meaningful and impactful. Brainstorming with smart colleagues and coming up with solutions to the most challenging geoscience problems are the most fulfilling aspects of my work. There is also a tangible sense of ownership and inclusion at work; and upon reflection, this welcoming culture was particularly important at the start of my career.
I came to the UK purely for work, and I didn’t have many friends to start with. I started off with a team led by an Italian. My teammates were from England, France and Bulgaria, and everyone taught me a ton not just technically but also helped me to settled down here. I went on to lead a team of 5 people, and I made it my aim to give back in the same way.
Before my recent change in role to business development manager my responsibility was to lead a team of geophysicists, processing seismic data from time domain signals, building detailed models of the earth’s seismic properties in depth and creating high-resolution 3D images of the Earth’s subsurface. Projects varied from high-resolution near surface imaging, 4D or time-lapse processing and ocean bottom node full-azimuth processing, to name a few.
One of my last projects was to resolve a time-lapse imaging challenge, where the 4D signal (the result of changes in the seismic properties of the rocks between repeated seismic surveys or acquisitions) of the target, in this case reservoir rocks containing hydrocarbons which were being extracted or produced, was masked by effects induced by a non-producing reservoir sitting immediately above it.
Conventionally, the baseline seismic data acquisition and the subsequent monitor acquisition after a period of production from the reservoir would be imaged with a common earth model. However, based on the quantitative analysis of the magnitude of 4D changes of the non-producing reservoir, we drew the conclusion that a new workflow to derive separate models specifically of seismic velocity & attenuation (Q) would be needed.
The picture below shows a depth slice and two cross-sections from a seismic image volume through gas saturated rocks in the near surface just beneath the seabed. The seismic reflectivity image (grayscale with black representing an increase in acoustic impedance) is overlaid by the seismic velocity (top) & Q model (bottom) used for final imaging. Note the image is not the final image in order to show the disruption to the deeper image beneath the shallower gas.
