Resistivity of reservoir sandstones and organic rich shales on the Barents Shelf:Implications for interpreting CSEM data

Marine controlled source electromagnetic(CSEM)data have been utilized in the past decade during petroleum exploration of the Barents Shelf,particularly for de-risking the highly porous sandstone reservoirs of the Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic Realgrunnen Subgroup.In this contribution we compare the resistivity response from CSEM data to resistivity from wireline logs in both water-and hydrocarbon-bearing wells.We show that there is a very good match between these types of data,particularly when reservoirs are shallow.CSEM data,however,only provide information on the subsurface resistivity.Careful,geology-driven interpretation of CSEM data is required to maximize the impact on exploration success.This is particularly important when quantifying the relative re-sistivity contribution of high-saturation hydrocarbon-bearing sandstone and that of the overlying cap rock.In the presented case the cap rock comprises predominantly organic rich Upper Jurassic-Early Cretaceous shales of the Hekkingen Formation(i.e.a regional source rock).The resistivity response of the reservoir and its cap rock become merged in CSEM data due to the transverse resistance equivalence principle.As a result of this,it is imperative to understand both the relative contributions from reservoir and cap rock,and the geological sig-nificance of any lateral resistivity variation in each of the units.In this contribution,we quantify the resistivity of organic rich mudstone,i.e.source rock,and reservoir sandstones,using 131 exploration boreholes from the Barents Shelf.The highest resistivity(＞10,000 Ωm)is evident in the hydrocarbon-bearing Realgrunnen Subgroup which is reported from 48 boreholes,43 of which are used for this study.Pay zone resistivity is primarily controlled by reservoir quality(i.e.porosity and shale fraction)and fluid phase(i.e.gas,oil and water saturation).In the investigated wells,the shale dominated Hekkingen Formation exhibits enhanced resistivity compared to the background(i.e.the underlying and overlying stratigraphy),though rarely exceeds 20Ωm.Marine mudstones typically show good correlation between measured organic richness and resistivity/sonic velocity log signatures.We conclude that the resistivity contribution to the CSEM response from hydrocarbon-bearing sandstones out-weighs that of the organic rich cap rocks.     

Water mass formation variability in the intermediate layer of the east sea

Long-term variability in the intermediate layer of the eastern Japan Basin has been investigated to understand the variability of water mass formation in the East Sea. The simultaneous decrease of temperature at shallower depths and oxygen increasing at deeper depths in the intermediate layer took place in the late 1960’s and the mid-1980’s. Records of winter sea surface temperatures and air temperatures showed that there were cold winters that persisted for several years during those periods. Therefore, it was assumed that a large amount of newly-formed water was supplied to the intermediate layer during those cold winters. Close analysis suggests that the formation of the Upper Portion of Proper Water occurred in the late 1960’s and the Central Water in the mid-1980’s.     

Numerical and experimental study on hydrodynamic interaction of side-by-side moored multiple vessels

This paper aims to investigate the basic interaction characteristics of side-by-side moored vessels both numerically and experimentally. A higher-order boundary element method (HOBEM) combined with generalized mode approach is applied to analysis of motion and drift force of side-by-side moored multiple vessels (LNG FPSO, LNGC and shuttle tankers). Model tests were carried out for the same floating bodies investigated in the numerical study in regular and irregular waves. Global and local motion responses and drift forces of three vessels are compared with those of calculations. Discussions is highlighted on applicability of numerical method to prediction of sophisticated multi-body interaction problem of which motion behavior is very important to analysis of mooring dynamics of deep sea floating bodies.     

Constructing rainfall depth-frequency curves considering a linear trend in rainfall observations

Comprehensive flood prevention plans are established in large basins to cope with recent abnormal floods in South Korea. In order to make economically effective plans, appropriate design rainfalls are critically determined from the rainfall depth-frequency curves which take the occurrence of abnormal floods into consideration. Conventional approaches to construct the rainfall depth-frequency curves are based on the stationarity assumption. However, this assumption has a critical weak aspect in that it cannot reflect non-stationarities in rainfall observations. As an alternative, this study suggests the non-stationary Gumbel model (NSGM) which incorporates a linear trend of rainfall observations into rainfall frequency analysis to construct the rainfall depth-frequency curves. A comparison of various schemes employed in the model found that the proposed NSGM permits the estimation of the distribution parameters even when shifted in the future by using linear relationships between rainfall statistics and distribution parameters, and produces more acceptable estimates of design rainfalls in the future than the conventional model. The NSGM was applied at several stations in South Korea and then expected the design rainfalls to increase by up to 15–30% in 2050.     

Estimating urban above ground biomass with multi-scale LiDAR

Background

Urban trees have long been valued for providing ecosystem services (mitigation of the “heat island” effect, suppression of air pollution, etc.); more recently the potential of urban forests to store significant above ground biomass (AGB) has also be recognised. However, urban areas pose particular challenges when assessing AGB due to plasticity of tree form, high species diversity as well as heterogeneous and complex land cover. Remote sensing, in particular light detection and ranging (LiDAR), provide a unique opportunity to assess urban AGB by directly measuring tree structure. In this study, terrestrial LiDAR measurements were used to derive new allometry for the London Borough of Camden, that incorporates the wide range of tree structures typical of an urban setting. Using a wall-to-wall airborne LiDAR dataset, individual trees were then identified across the Borough with a new individual tree detection (ITD) method. The new allometry was subsequently applied to the identified trees, generating a Borough-wide estimate of AGB.

Results

Camden has an estimated median AGB density of 51.6 Mg ha^–1 where maximum AGB density is found in pockets of woodland; terrestrial LiDAR-derived AGB estimates suggest these areas are comparable to temperate and tropical forest. Multiple linear regression of terrestrial LiDAR-derived maximum height and projected crown area explained 93% of variance in tree volume, highlighting the utility of these metrics to characterise diverse tree structure. Locally derived allometry provided accurate estimates of tree volume whereas a Borough-wide allometry tended to overestimate AGB in woodland areas. The new ITD method successfully identified individual trees; however, AGB was underestimated by ≤?25% when compared to terrestrial LiDAR, owing to the inability of ITD to resolve crown overlap. A Monte Carlo uncertainty analysis identified assigning wood density values as the largest source of uncertainty when estimating AGB.

Conclusion

Over the coming century global populations are predicted to become increasingly urbanised, leading to an unprecedented expansion of urban land cover. Urban areas will become more important as carbon sinks and effective tools to assess carbon densities in these areas are therefore required. Using multi-scale LiDAR presents an opportunity to achieve this, providing a spatially explicit map of urban forest structure and AGB.

     

Beta-�� distribution and its application to hydrologic events

The beta-κ distribution is a distinct case of the generalized beta distribution of the second kind. In previous studies, beta-p and beta-κ distributions have played important roles in representing extreme events, and thus, the present paper uses the beta-κ distribution. Further, this paper uses the method of moments and the method of L-moments to estimate the parameters from the beta-κ distribution, and to demonstrate the performance of the proposed model, the paper presents a simulation study using three estimation methods (including the maximum likelihood estimation method) and beta-κ and non beta-κ samples. In addition, this paper evaluates the performance of the beta-κ distribution by employing two widely used extreme value distributions (i.e., the GEV and Gumbel distributions) and two sets of actual data on extreme events.     

The structure of ice and ice cover in lower Amur reaches with branched channel

The study is focused on the specific features of ice regime in Amur lower reaches and the structure of ice surface in branches of different size and dynamic state. The main features of ice stratigraphy in different parts of the river have been identified, and ice cover characteristics have been found to show considerable heterogeneity across the channel. Quantitative data on the concentration of terrigenous material in the ice and its distribution within the ice mass have been collected. The amount of terrigenous material was estimated in the ice in Amur lower reaches, from where it is largely exported into the Sea of Okhotsk during spring ice drift.     

Assessing Cryptic Invasion State: Fine-Scale Genetic Analysis of Ciona savignyi Population in Putative Native Habitat of the Korean Coast

The solitary ascidian, Ciona savignyi (Ascidiacea, Enterogona) is a notorious marine invader still expanding its habitat range worldwide. This species is considered native to the North West Pacific, but its indigeneity in Korean coastal waters has been questioned because of outdated taxonomic records and its inhabitation of oceanographically marginal areas. To clarify their cryptic invasion state, 247 individual C. savignyi samples were collected from 12 harbors and marinas on the Korean coast, and a 744 bp region of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene was sequenced and analyzed. Our analyses of population genetic structure and demographic history provided considerable pieces of evidence supporting their long-term establishment on the Korean coasts: differentiated population genetic structure, sequentially arrayed star-shape haplotype network, neutrality test results of past population expansions, and post-glacial colonization pattern of demography. Consequently, we concluded that C. savignyi populations on the Korean Coast are indigenous rather than exotic. These results could be used as reference data for further phylogeo graphic and demographic studies of problematic Ciona species, and to clarify and resolve similar cryptic invasion states of the other Korean coastal marine organisms. This study is the first to resolve the cryptic in vasion state of Korean marine organisms using genetic analysis.