Career profiles in the oilsands

Laurie Bellman , P. Geoph.

Age: 49

Title: President

Company: Oil Sands Imaging

Education: Bachelor of Science in honours Physics, University of Victoria, 1986

Years in Current Position: Three

During the height of the most recent boom, you formed Oil Sands Imaging. What compelled you to focus on the oilsands?

I was attracted to the challenges of the geological environment and the opportunities to develop and apply leading-edge geophysical processes and workflows. Since 2000, I've focused on transforming seismic data into geology. At Oil Sands Imaging, we integrate well information with seismic data to offer a detailed image of the subsurface geology and fluid content. We optimize seismic value for our clients, allowing for more efficient management of the reservoir.

Can you describe the process you've developed?

We've developed a process called STAC, which stands for Seismic Transformation And Classification. With an emphasis on rigorous quality control, the STAC process integrates, calibrates and analyses well log data, core information and seismic data. Using the well data or "ground truth," we derive deterministic relationships between acoustic rock attributes and reservoir properties and we apply these relationships to equivalent attribute representations of the seismic data.

Your approach involves "digging into the data." How have your previous roles informed your process?

Early in my career, I worked for Shell Canada doing seismic processing and interpretation. Shell training and culture instilled a thoroughness in me and the processing experience of those early years provided me with an appreciation for the quantitative aspects of seismic data.

That foundation ingrained that computer programs can only do so much. True creation and discovery has to come from a human being. Computers don't know how to innovate. Experience, intuition, common sense and perseverance are the qualities that make the difference.

How did you weather the downturn in the economy?

We were extremely busy our first year, but there's no question oilsands operators had to tighten their belts in 2008. Every project got put under a microscope, which ended up being a good thing because the work I do allows operators to get more out of their data and ultimately more value out of their resource.