Host: Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists (CSPG)

Location: Chateau Lake Louise, Lake Louise, Canada

Dates: October 8-11, 2018 (Tuesday AM to Thursday PM; Icebreaker Monday October 8)

With the proliferation of geologists applying Geomodeling techniques, Gaps persist between the applications of Geomodeling, Geostatistics, the software tools and the appropriate practice of those techniques in the broader community. The challenges grow. The meeting plan is to gather expertise from practitioners, software vendors and Geostatisticians to present and discuss materials to help focus the participants on the path to ensure the continuing success of the Geomodeling community. This event will deliver many levels of exciting technical discussion around innovations, use of effective and efficient geomodeling methods and spark insights. Shared experience is a key. We can bridge the Gap.

Geostatistics is a fundamental aspect of Geomodeling. The meeting target is broadened in scope to a multi-disciplined audience. The aim is to emphasize the applications and challenges, to expose the difficulties causing pain in our workflows, and to underscore actionable research ready to be implemented today. Common themes will emerge.

There are deterministic data, models and methods. These have a place as the basis for analyzing reservoirs. Many of our data types are determined for use in Geostatistics and Geomodeling without considering bias and scale. Uncertainty in the data exists. Therefore it is subject to interpretation and to statistical measures of that uncertainty. Geomodels can be built with scenarios to capture uncertainty in the interpretations. Statistical and geostatistical approaches can be used to capture the spread of uncertainty in inputs, scenarios, and results. The choices of available methods for simulating parameters are growing. So are the actionable methods to summarize, classify and extract useful information from all realization sets. There are trade-offs depending on goals and information available. Model Checking, Validating and Fairness are important, yet underutilized in practice. Ultimately, decisions …economic decisions are made.

During the course of the presentations and for posters, let us not forget underlying fundamentals of spatial data analysis, trends, variograms, plus geostatistical limitations. A variety of facies and petrophysical simulation techniques are used for modeling heterogeneity. Physical behaviour of materials and fluids present challenges. Special topics may include faults, fractures, unstructured grids, gridless modeling and advances in integration of diverse information. Dynamic response and forecasting are among the outcomes of models and are themselves models with assumptions. Flow simulation, proxies, and feedback for updating are used to predict an uncertain future. Old and new techniques, e.g., machine learning, are coming into vogue in data and model analysis. Emphasis might be placed on case studies showing the appropriate use, impact or limitations of techniques. Context is a key.

Software vendors are solicited to present real technical solutions highlighting their software as part of the oral and poster sessions. The idea is to include commercial technology solutions in the meeting in a way that is distinct from a convention floor canned demo. The Gussow format proved to be successful in 2011 and 2014 at Closing the Gap I and II. The benefit for software and service companies is from the novel takeaways, including excellent interaction with the technical attendees and quality of ideas. Most importantly, Closing the Gap highlights the trends in technical themes that will influence strategies for subsurface integrated teams.

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