ABOUT

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.

If you have any questions about the Acoustics SIG, please contact us at [email protected]!

JOINING THE SIG
There are two ways to join the Acoustics Special Interest Group. If you are a member of the SPWLA then you should join the SIG during the membership renewal process, where you will be asked to select the SIG membership of your choice. However, as noted above, the SIG is open to all, regardless of SPWLA membership, (although we obviously encourage you all to join!) therefore if you are not a member of the SPWLA then please join the SIG through this link.

KEEPING UP TO DATE WITH SIG ACTIVITIES
The Acoustics SIG endeavors to hold events on as regular a basis as possible. Notification of events to SIG members will be through email, through this webpage and primarily through our new SIG LinkedIn page called “SPWLA Acoustics SIG”, where we hope to facilitate communications, as well as have interesting and educational acoustics related discussions.  Hope to see you there! https://www.linkedin.com/company/spwla-acoustics-sig/

UPCOMING EVENTS
 SPWLA Fall Topical Symposium - “See and Hear the Formation: Exploring the Synergies Between Borehole Imaging and Borehole Acoustics”
Register Here==>

The Acoustics SIG is co-hosting the 2023 SPWLA Fall Topical Symposium, in partnership with the Borehole Imaging SIG.  This event will take place in Houston on November 8th and 9th and this workshop will take the format of presentations and open discussion between experts from operator companies, service companies, and universities on a wide variety of topics surrounding the synergies between borehole imaging and borehole acoustics technology, including but not limited to:

  • Integrated fracture analysis using borehole images and sonic data.
  • Geomechanics analysis from the combination of image features, rock mechanics and borehole stresses
  • Looking beyond the wellbore: Structural and stratigraphic interpretation combining borehole image data and acoustic far-field imaging
  • The application of machine learning and multi-physics approaches to borehole acoustics and image data. Could it allow us to do things we cannot do now?
  • Role of borehole acoustics and image in CCS and geothermal technologies/workflows
  • Novel applications and new technical developments in either field

For the full agenda, location details and presenter abstracts and bio's - click the Register link above