American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012 - 133

the short-wavelength displays that show
more lineament detail and resolution than
the long-wavelength displays.
There are obvious advantages to running
Euler curvature on post-stack seismic volumes in that azimuth directions can be
chosen carefully to highlight the lineaments
in the directions known through image
logs or production data to better correlate
to open fractures. This does not entail
processing azimuth-restricted volumes
(usually three or four) all the way to migration and then passing them through
coherence/curvature computation.
As shown on two 3-D seismic volumes,

Enbridge Energy Expands
Bakken Transport Ability

applying the reflector convergence and
the rotation about the normal to the reflector
dip attributes has proven very useful. Reflector convergence gives the magnitude
and direction of thickening and thinning
of reflections on uninterpreted seismic
volumes, while reflector rotation about
faults is clearly evident and has a valuable
application in mapping wrench faults.
Such attributes yield convincing results
on data sets that have good quality.
Euler curvatures run in desired az-

imuthal directions exhibit a more welldefined set of lineaments that may be of
interest. Both the long- or short-wavelength
computations can be of value to the interpreter, depending on the desired level
of detail. The short-wavelength Euler
curvature is more beneficial for observing
fracture lineaments. This work is ongoing
and we hope to calibrate the observed
lineaments with the image logs in terms
of rose diagram matching to enhance the
interpreter's level of confidence.
r

FIGURE 7
Correlation of an In-Line with
Euler Curvature Attribute Volumes at Different Angles
(Left: Long Wavelength; Right: Short Wavelength)

HOUSTON-Enbridge Energy Partners
says it will spend another $145 million
to add a rail car loading facility to its
Berthold, N.D., terminal, raising the expected capacity of its Berthold rail project
to 80,000 barrels of oil a day.
Enbridge explains that its Berthold
rail project complements its Bakken expansion program, and integrates the crude
oil gathering system in western North
Dakota and eastern Montana, created by
the company's Bakken access program.
The Bakken expansion program, Enbridge notes, was announced in August
2010. It will provide 145,000 bbl/d of
take-away capacity-25,000 bbl/d of which
already is available-for production in
Montana, North Dakota and Southeast
Saskatchewan by early 2013. The Bakken
access program, Enbridge continues, involves increasing gathering pipeline capacities, constructing additional storage
tanks and adding truck access facilities
at multiple locations in western North
Dakota. It is expected to be in service
prior to the startup of the Bakken expansion program.
The Berthold rail project, which entails
constructing a double-loop unit train facility, crude oil tankage and other terminal
facilities, according to Enbridge, will
have the ability to stage three unit trains
at any time. After an initial 10,000 bbl/d
startup in July 2012, Enbridge says, the
full 80,000 bbl/d of rail export capacity
is scheduled to be in service in early
2013.
❒

0 degrees

45 degrees

90 degrees

135 degrees

Coming In February
Part II of the Oil & Gas Shales series, featuring the revolutionary impacts of unconventional resources on
the industry and the nation at large.

Long wavelength

Short wavelength
JANUARY 2012 133

American Oil and Gas Reporter - January 2012

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