The vision thing

Abstract

Editor's note: This collection of thoughts about the future of gravity and magnetics arose from an email discussion between Pat Millegan and Alan Reid. Reid, an active member of the SEG G&M Committee, has been instrumental in helping the community agree on data transfer standards after 30 years of “discussion.” Their email chat prompted Millegan to solicit comments from others about the future of the G&M disciplines. All thoughts and comments were written for inclusion in this article. Where are the potential-fields geophysics methods going? My crystal ball is as cloudy as anyone's, but the profession is seeing an upsurge of innovation and I'm seeing some of my young man's visions turning into reality instead of old man's dreams (Joel 2:28). The changes in data resolution and sensitivity are making completely new applications possible, so that potential-fields methods are expanding from regional tools into prospect scale and to some extent to reservoir scale. In the next 10 years, I believe that we will see more than 75% of the following objectives achieved. 1. Satellite gravity data will take over completely in the offshore regional environment and will be used routinely in planning all offshore seismic surveys. 2. Marine and land gravity acquisition will go to higher resolutions and sensitivities and will remain bread-and-butter work. 3. Conventional airborne gravity will become available at higher sensitivities, better resolution, and lower prices. 4. Vector gravity data will be collected from moving platforms (land, sea, and air). 5. Gravity tensor gradient measurement will become widely used, notably for reservoir problems, and will be available from multiple contractors using more than one instrument type. Their increased sensitivity will permit them to penetrate the minerals sector. 6. Borehole gravity data will (finally) find widespread use in the reservoir environment. 7. Absolute gravity and gravity gradient surveying will become routine both on the ground …