The Acoustics Special Interest Group has been formed in accordance with the SPWLA bylaws and has been ratified/approved by the committee.  The purpose of the SIG is to promote the science and application of borehole acoustics within the wider petrophysical community and to provide an open forum for members to discuss the latest developments within the field.

Borehole acoustics has grown significantly in technology and applications since the early days in the 1960's. It now encompasses a wide field of disciplines within geophysics, petrophysics, geomechanics and well integrity, and the technology has developed from the simple early tools to today’s complex, full-waveform wireline and LWD devices.  Modern borehole acoustics deals with the excitation, detection and interpretation of multiple types of propagating arrivals to determine a diverse set of information about the formations surrounding the borehole including porosity, lithology, fluid typing, rock mechanical properties, anisotropy, stress state, pore pressure, permeability, fracture analysis and more.  It also covers cased hole evaluation, both formation measurements through casing and cement evaluation.  The field has recently even expanded beyond the near wellbore, to image events far from the wellbore itself and moved outside of traditional oil and gas applications, such as becoming a key part of successful CCUS projects.

The Acoustics SIG is a community of people from a wide variety of disciplines within both the oil and gas and alternative energy communities, who all share a common interest in the science of borehole acoustics. Our membership ranges from those with just a technical curiosity to those who are specialists in the field, and includes members from academia, governmental organizations, and the corporate world.  We are open to people of all backgrounds and there are no fees associated with joining the SIG, although we obviously encourage you to also join the SPWLA. There is sometimes a registration fee to attend meetings to offset the cost of meeting facilities/meals.  We endeavor to meet once every two months, as well as to have periodic workshops.

The Role of Borehole Acoustics in a Diverse Energy Industry: This Special Session will focus on the role that borehole acoustics enabled solutions can play in providing answers to a wide variety of problems encountered, not only in the traditional oil and gas applications, but also those in the emerging new energy industries, including CCS, geothermal, wind, and nuclear.  Abstract submissions for this special session can include relevant topics such as, but not limited to:

• How acoustics plays a key role in carbon storage, geothermal, nuclear waste disposal, and wind energy site selection
• Integration of acoustics with multi-physics technologies in CCS capacity and containment verification programs
• Sonic reflection imaging and stoneley wave analysis for understanding distributed fracture networks
• Advanced/multi-string acoustic cement evaluation for well integrity in injection, disposal, and P&A operations
• Case studies of using measurements of anisotropy and fracture analysis to maximize successes in Geomechanics, Geophysics, and Reservoir Production

Abstract Submission Link:  SPWLA2023 Abstract Submissions

Webinar Registration Now Open:  The first of a continuing series of borehole acoustics related webinars will take place on September 29th (8:00am-9:00am CDT). The presenter is Brian Hornby and the title is "The Road to Achieve Business Value from Borehole Sonic Imaging". For the full abstract and to register, please follow the link below.
REGISTRATION LINK:  The Road to Achieve Business Value from Borehole Sonic Imaging