2006 Annual Report of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists

Reports of the Officers Page

President ...... Terry K. Young 3 President-elect ...... Leon Thomsen 4 First vice president ...... David J. Monk 4 Second vice president ...... Stephen H. Danbom 5 Vice president ...... María Ángela Capello5 Secretary-treasurer ...... Frank D. Brown 6 Editor ...... Yonghe Sun 7

Reports of the Standing Committee Chairmen

Advisory ...... Peter M. Duncan 11 Annual International Meeting 2006 ...... Albert (Al) P. Brown 11 Constitution and Bylaws ...... Dan A. Ebrom 11 Continuing Education ...... Jon Conaway 12 Development and Production ...... John R. Waggoner 12 Distinguished Lecture ...... William (Bill) L. Abriel 12 Exhibitors ...... Gordon J. McCoullough 13 Foundation Board of Directors ...... Richard A. Baile 13 Foundation Trustee Associates ...... Gary G. Servos 14 Geoscience Center ...... Gary M. Hoover 15 Global Affairs ...... Aldo L. Vesnaver 16 Gravity and Magnetics ...... David R. Oxley Jr. 17 Honors and Awards ...... Sally G. Zinke 17 Interpretation ...... W. Verney Green 19 Joint Meetings ...... Klaas Koster 20 Meetings Review and Planning ...... Klaas Koster 20 Membership ...... Roy E. Clark Jr. 20 Mining and Geothermal ...... Mary M. Poulton 23 Nominations ...... Craig J. Beasley 23 SEG Online ...... Susan Mastoris Peebler24 Project Review ...... Ivan de Araújo Simões-Filho 24 Publications ...... Satinder Chopra 25 Publications Policy ...... Stephen J. Hill 26 Research ...... Arthur C. H. Cheng 26 Reviews ...... David C. Bartel 26 Scholarship ...... Karen K. Dittert 27 Student Sections/Academic Liaison ...... Kathleen J. Aikin 31 Technical Standards ...... Ted Mariner 31 Tellers ...... Daniel J. Piazzola 31 THE LEADING EDGE Editorial Board ...... Ali Tura 32 Translations ...... Sergio Chávez-Pérez 33 SEG 2006 Annual Report

Reports of the Ad Hoc Committee Chairman Page

eGY 2007-2008 ...... Ralph W. Baird 34

Reports of the Representatives

American Geological Institute (AGI) Government Affairs Program ...... Wayne D. Pennington 36 American Geological Institute (AGI) Member Society Council ...... Wayne D. Pennington 36 American Petroleum Institute (API) Central Committee for Telecommunications ...... Clifford H. Ray 36 International Association of Oil and Gas Producers Geodesy Working Group ...... Alan K. Faichney 37 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Board of Directors ...... Jack Caldwell 38 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Technical Program ...... Gene W. Sparkman 38 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Arrangements ...... Roy E. Clark Jr. 39 Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Young Professionals Event . . . . .Sverre Brandsberg-Dahl 39 Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) Oil and Gas Reserves ...... Matthew J. Mikulich 40

Financial Statements

Foundation with Independent Auditors’ Report ...... 41 Society of Exploration Geophysicists with Independent Auditors’ Report ...... 52 Executive Committee Reports

year, SEG continued in this direction with the “Hydrogeo- Terry K. Young, president physics” workshop in Vancouver, British Columbia, and the SEG Development and Production Forum, “Deepwater Chal- The mission of the Society of Exploration Geophysicists is lenges in Exploration, Development, and Production,” in Rio to be the leading international applied geophysics professional de Janeiro, Brazil. Rather than proliferating the number of society. The focus of this year’s Executive Committee has been meetings worldwide, it is desirable to partner with other soci- to improve SEG’s processes for serving its diverse internation- eties, particularly those native to a region, in conducting meet- al membership that during the year climbed to nearly 27 000, ings of special importance to that region. Therefore, the Deep- the majority of whom reside outside North America. This water Forum was convened out of a partnership among SEG’s focus derives from momentum established by preceding com- Development and Production Committee, the Sociedade mittees combined with the inherent interests of the individu- Brasileira de Geofisica (SBGf), and the Latin American Geo- als elected to serve on this Executive Committee. Strategic ini- physical Union (ULG). Similarly, in November 2005, SEG tiatives supporting this focus include: (1) SEG Online— joined with the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the enhancing SEG’s virtual presence worldwide via the Web; (2) European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE), electronic meetings—doing more of SEG’s business by Web- and the American Association of Petroleum Geologists supported teleconferences; (3) regional meetings—continuing (AAPG) to convene the first International Petroleum Tech- technical forums in diverse international venues, partnering nology Conference, held in Doha, Qatar. In the future, the with other societies in joint meetings, and instituting regional Executive Committee plans to sponsor lecture tours by distin- distinguished lecture series; (4) regional offices—establishing guished members from SEG’s various international regions. SEG offices in key locations around the globe; (5) student Although the Internet provides means for effective virtual development—growing student leaders from around the conferencing and SEG Online promises to enhance the deliv- globe; and (6) increasing the percentage of the international ery of member benefits via the Web, the Executive Committee members who are active, voting members. believes that the Society will benefit from having offices dis- SEG Online began as a comprehensive brainstorming tributed around the globe. These offices are intended to activity of the SEG staff aimed at identifying all member ser- enhance local effectiveness in delivering member services and vices that would be facilitated by a significantly enhanced Web in partnering with regional professional societies in organizing site. After review and feedback by SEG members and a busi- regional meetings. It is a big step to distribute the staff of SEG ness analysis by a consulting firm, SEG Online is now a major among multiple offices worldwide, and the Executive Com- strategic initiative of the Society and the SEG Foundation. A mittee is working with Executive Director Mary Fleming, multiyear effort, SEG Online ultimately will impact the inter- assisted by a consultant, to carefully select the right combina- national membership in many ways such as professional devel- tion of locations for international offices. The venues for the opment through continuing education online. first two distributed offices are expected to be announced at As executive committees and other standing committees of the Annual Meeting in New Orleans. the Society become increasingly diverse in their international The future of the Society depends not only on serving the representation, it is important that the work of the Society current membership but also on developing its future leaders. progress through virtual meetings conducted electronically by In partnership with the SEG Foundation, the Executive Com- teleconference, supported by Web-based conferencing tools. mittee is sponsoring the development of a “Student Leadership This year’s Executive Committee elected to reduce the num- Initiative.” Starting in 2007, SEG plans to invite leader repre- ber of its face-to-face meetings, while increasing the number of sentatives from student sections around the globe to partici- its meetings, by making greater use of Web-based virtual meet- pate in a development program in conjunction with the Annu- ings. Other committees, such as the Foundation’s “Projects of al International Meeting. Merit,” accomplished all their work through virtual meetings In approximate terms, the current membership of the Soci- via electronic conferencing. ety consists of 1/3 active members, 1/3 associate members, and To serve a vibrant international membership more effec- 1/3 student members. Another priority of this year’s Executive tively it is important to convene the technical meetings of the Committee has been to grow the percentage of members who Society in diverse international venues. Last year’s Executive are active in the leadership of the Society and able to exercise Committee, under the leadership of Craig Beasley, began orga- a vote, i.e., to increase the number of active members. In nizing small, topical technical forums for this purpose. This response to the initiative of the Membership Committee, with

3 4 SEG 2006 Annual Report crucial input from the Global Affairs Committee, the Execu- Report, BOD Chairman Dick Baile relates the expanding role tive Committee approved a change in the process for approv- of the Foundation in support of SEG activities. An important ing applications for active member status. In the future, part of that support will derive from the Foundation’s Major instead of requiring a candidate applying for active member- Gifts Campaign, where I also sit on the campaign cabinet. As ship to have three active member references, the new proce- part of this liaison, I met monthly with Baile and Foundation dure stipulates that only one of the three references must be an Vice Chairman Gary Servos; we will be working closely with SEG active member. Additional references may be selected them next year. from the following sources: active or equivalent member of I also liaised with the Project Review Committee, which SEG’s allied or cooperating societies; current or past geo- judges and prioritizes project applications from members all science employers; or the applicant’s authorship of a technical over the world, for funding by the Foundation; the report of publication in a journal sponsored by SEG or one of its allied Chairman Ivan de Araújo Simões-Filho appears elsewhere in or cooperating societies. Modification of the process for this Annual Report. approving applications for active member status requires a Representing Terry Young and SEG, I attended the bian- Bylaws change and thus will await Council approval before nual convention of our Indian affiliate, SPG-India, in Kolkata being put in place. in January. In February, I attended NAPE in Houston, which It is important to note that leadership of the Society and has grown to the same size as the SEG Annual Meeting, or big- tangible progress on strategic initiatives has become a com- ger. Also in February, I attended the annual AAPG Leadership bined effort of the Executive Committee working together Conference in Galveston, where representatives from many with the SEG Foundation Board and the Trustee Associates petroleum-related societies were invited to discuss mutual leadership. This year the SEG Foundation Board, under the problems, including public outreach. With Young’s concur- leadership of Dick Baile, took an important step impacting the rence, I agreed there to encourage and deepen efforts to coop- financial strength of the Society by deciding to commence erate with AAPG in a variety of contexts. In April, I attended paying 100% of the Foundation’s imputed costs and by con- the AGU Leadership Conference in Washington, where many tributing $200 000 toward immediate funding of the SEG geoscience societies were invited, for a similar purpose. In Online strategic initiative. May, I attended the Annual Symposium of the Permian Basin It has been an honor to serve the Society this year as part of Section, in Midland, Texas. In August, I represented SEG at an Executive Committee team consisting of Leon Thomsen, the biannual convention of our Indonesian affiliate, HAGI, in Dave Monk, María Ángela Capello, Steve Danbom, Frank Jakarta. None of this travel was paid by SEG. Brown, and Yonghe Sun. David J. Monk, first vice president Leon Thomsen, president-elect President Terry Young assigned me to serve as liaison with the This year, following recent practice, former President Craig following committees: 76th Annual Meeting, Development and Beasley and current President Terry Young included me in Production, Exhibitors, Meetings Review and Planning, OTC strategic discussions that require continuity between successive (Board of Directors, Technical Program, Arrangements, and executive committees, starting shortly after the election, even Young Professional Event), Joint Meetings, and eGY. before my actually taking office. This continuity of exposure Following the natural disaster in New Orleans in 2005, to issues is important to provide institutional memory, as each perhaps the most important decision made by the Executive successive executive committee is composed of part-time vol- Committee and Annual Meeting Committee was to hold our unteers with only a short time in office. So, as I prepare to take single most important event in New Orleans in 2006. Support office in October as your president, I feel fully briefed on the for this meeting has been exceptional, and the Technical Pro- major issues before the Society. gram will be equivalent to that developed for the 75th anniver- In a departure from recent practice, Young and I conferred sary meeting in 2005 in Houston. with the Finance Committee and SEG staff in Tulsa in April, As of July 1, 926 booths have been sold. We anticipate this prior to the presentation of the annual budget to the Executive number will increase and that the 2006 Annual Meeting in Committee later that month. As a result, the budget, although New Orleans will be a great success. strikingly different from recent past budgets (see the report by The year 2007 has been designated the Electronic Geo- Chairman Frank Brown, elsewhere in this Annual Report), has physical Year (eGY), and the Executive Committee supports received full discussion and deliberation by your elected repre- the philosophy of eGY. Awareness of eGY has been promoted sentatives, and it has our approval. to SEG membership and will continue. At Young’s request, I served as Executive Committee liai- The Meetings Review and Planning Committee has evalu- son to the SEG Foundation. The Board of Directors of the ated numerous proposals for meetings throughout the world, Foundation has a longer tenure in office than does the SEG and the chairman of this committee has been active in keeping Executive Committee, and consequently has a longer-term members informed and active through the use of the SEG view of the needs of the Society. Elsewhere in this Annual Web site eCommunities. SEG 2006 Annual Report 5 The schedule for planning the OTC does not naturally fit sented two different perspectives on needed changes to the with the term of the Executive Committee, as much of the structure of our membership. Roy Clark Jr., chairman of the OTC planning is completed prior to the time a new member Membership Committee, and a member of the Global Affairs of the Executive Committee can meaningfully participate. As Committee, gave an extensive presentation that was centered liaison for SEG, I believe that I could best serve the members around six different discussion topics: (1) change active mem- by being involved from the start of planning for OTC 2007, ber application process; (2) institute automatic upgrade to and I am currently working on the OTC Technical Program active from associate after set amount of time; (3) give associ- Committee for the 2007 meeting. ate members voting rights; (4) suspend corporate member- This year has been challenging for the Development and ships after 2006; (5) allow dues reduction to those who request Production Committee (D&P), with perhaps the biggest help; and (6) support the student member sponsorship pro- issues stemming from the 2006 D&P “Deepwater Forum” gram. The Executive Committee passed changes associated held in Rio de Janeiro and cosponsored by the Sociedade with many of these topics consistent with our global and often Brasileira de Geofísica (SBGf), and the Latin American Geo- remote membership constituency and our increasing reliance physical Union (ULG). on electronic communications. It has been a pleasure to participate in the activities of our The committees with which I liaison submit their own Society over the past year, and to work with the Executive reports for this 2006 SEG Annual Report. Committee, SEG staff, and the numerous volunteers who In closing, I thank the membership for their trust in elect- serve the Society. It is hoped that the New Orleans Annual ing me to this position, and I hope others of you reading this Meeting will be a success and may help in the planning of will get a similar opportunity to serve the Society in the future. future meetings further afield, which will demonstrate the Executive Committee’s commitment to the growing SEG membership from overseas. María Ángela Capello, vice president

It has been a great honor to be your representative on the Stephen H. Danbom SEG Executive Committee and to serve with such a distin- Second vice president guished group of geophysicists. I come from an emerging nation, Venezuela, and have been a committed member of our It has been a pleasure working with President Terry Young Society since the 1990s. Never did I expect to have this won- and the other members of the Executive Committee during derful opportunity to serve our membership and help make, I this past year. I was honored to be elected to the position of hope, a difference to SEG’s future. second vice president of SEG. It was a year I will not soon for- My passion has always been to create a global Society that get. embraces all geophysicists no matter where they live and work. Young started the year off quickly with a meeting at the I now know from personal experience that all of SEG’s execu- close of the 2005 Annual Meeting by requesting input for liai- tive and committee leadership share this commitment to a son assignments for the extensive committee structure of SEG. Society that serves and reflects our global profession. My committee liaison assignments were agreed upon to Your Executive Committee established goals early in our include Membership, chaired by Roy Clark Jr.; Gravity and term. Global issues predominated. I am very happy to share Magnetics, chaired by Dave Oxley; Interpretation, chaired by our progress with you. We have committed to the opening of W. Verney Green; Mining and Geothermal, chaired by Mary global offices to better serve current and future regional mem- Poulton; Technical Standards, chaired by Ted Mariner; AGI bers. We have discussed options with the Global Affairs Com- Member Society Council, and AGI Government Affairs, mittee and other groups of members and have identified three chaired by Wayne Pennington. In addition, consistent with primary opportunities to progress with all practical haste. I the second vice presidential role of representing the nonpetro- expect that we will be able to announce at least one new office leum sector of SEG, I was given the liaison position with the by the time of the October Annual Meeting, and that more Near-Surface Geophysical Section of SEG, whose current will be announced in 2007. president is Louise Pellerin. We have approved a new regional lecturer program recom- Subsequent to these established liaisons, I was able to focus mended by the Distinguished Lecture Committee. Lecturers on three specific goals involving the Membership Committee, will be selected through nomination from SEG sections and Interpretation Committee, and the Near-Surface Geophysics the Global Affairs Committee. They will serve as regional Section. The year has been spent attending to the wide variety ambassadors of our profession. SEG will fund a regional tour of items that comprise the agendas of Executive Committee and a trip to the Annual Meeting where they will be honored meetings throughout the year including some items derived for their contributions to the science and technology of geo- from my specific goals. physics. Funds have been budgeted to initiate this new pro- Certainly at the top of my list of agenda items for the year gram with two regional lectures in the first half of 2007. was the Executive Committee meeting on April 26, during Another goal of your Executive Committee has been to which the Membership and Global Affairs committees pre- increase participation of our global membership in the gover- 6 SEG 2006 Annual Report nance of the Society. We have examined the requirement for training) and a healthy increase in postage and delivery costs. active membership and approved, for SEG Council ratifica- Also in this fiscal year, SEG made $226 000 in matching con- tion this October, relaxing reference requirements. If tributions to the SEG Foundation as part of the Major Gifts approved, candidates for active membership will be able to use Campaign. employers and members of other professional societies for some of their references. I thank the SEG Membership Com- Budget for 2006–2007. The budget for fiscal year 2006–2007 mittee and Membership Department staff for their efforts to looks very different. We are projecting net operating revenues shorten application times through online application and ref- will be less than total expenses by about $746 000. This shortfall erence forms. is due, almost entirely, to a reduced projected net income for the The SEG membership should be very proud of the talent- Annual Meeting in New Orleans. While we are optimistic that ed staff we have working for us at the Tulsa business office. I the Annual Meeting will surpass our budget numbers, the Exec- have met many of them and can say they are an exceptional utive Committee felt it prudent to plan for the “possible.” group dedicated to the Society’s mission and vision. This small The forecast revenue for fiscal 2006–2007 is $10 317 000, group works effectively and cheerfully while serving a mem- a decrease of $661 000 from the prior year. This includes bership of nearly 24 000! I can’t express enough my thanks to reduced Annual Meeting revenue and the ever-present “unre- them for all that they do. alized gain (loss)” line. Increased revenue is being forecast from Our Society has grown immensely since I first became the Continuing Education program, from advertising and sub- involved in the Global Affairs Committee. Our membership is scriptions, and from Foundation support for costs associated now very global, with 58% living outside the United States. with the business office administration of some projects. Much has been accomplished and opportunities still remain. I The forecast expense for fiscal 2006–2007 is $11 063 000, hope soon to see strong global representation on all of SEG’s an increase of about $1 202 000 from the prior year. In addi- standing committees. I hope to see the outstanding youth out- tion to the reduced net revenue from the Annual Meeting, this reach programs of the Geoscience Center Committee accessi- includes an increase in printing costs to accommodate an ble to young people around the globe. And then, my greatest expansion in the size of GEOPHYSICS (see Yonghe Sun’s report hope is to see the disbanding of the Global Affairs Committee for details) and an increase in staff support for student sec- because it is no longer relevant in a truly global SEG. tions, scholarships, and IT support. Thank you for giving me this wonderful opportunity to serve. The Executive Committee, building on the work of previ- ous committees, also made a number of strategic budget deci- sions: Frank D. Brown, secretary-treasurer • Approved the position of director of global relations. The I am pleased to report that our Society’s financial condition person who fills this position will take the lead in moving is excellent. SEG has positioned itself well to provide increased SEG toward serving its worldwide membership by open- services to the membership while maintaining a healthy bal- ing and managing offices outside North America and by ance sheet. organizing meetings and conferences. • Approved the position of Web editor. The person who fills Budget for 2005–2006. SEG ended the 2005–2006 fiscal this position will manage the content of SEG’s Web sites year with a positive income of $1 117 235, up from $455 339 and be responsible for implementing the publications- last year, and up about $325 000 from preliminary forecasts. related projects in the SEG Online Plan. The SEG Online The primary reasons for the good news are: Plan is a major piece of the Foundations’s Major Gifts Campaign. 1) the 75th Annual Meeting in Houston netted $2.4 million, • Approved, for the Annual Meeting in San Antonio, the about $540 000 over budget. Congratulations will be due production of a Student Leadership Forum. We hope that the steering committee for quite some time this forum will provide SEG student section leaders the 2) an increase in advertising and membership revenue of opportunity to interact with industry and SEG leaders in a about $225 000 hands-on way that will encourage them to become active 3) an increase in revenue from NAPE and OTC of about (and “active”) members in the future. $395 000. • Approved the continuation of the matching contribution program to the Foundation’s Major Gifts Campaign, an Revenues for the year totaled $10 978 020, an increase of amount estimated at $365 000. $1 600 000 from the prior year. Highlights from the revenue side are noted above. Expenses for the year were $9 860 785, This is all very exciting and more than a bit daunting, but rest an increase of $938 000 from the prior year. Highlights from easy in the knowledge that the forecasts for 2007–2008 show a the expense side include $370 000 in increased annual meet- budget in balance. Be aware also, that SEG’s balance sheet ing costs (more than offset by the increase in revenue), an remains strong, with total net assets of about $11 377 000 and increase in overhead (as a result of increased staff travel and total current liabilities of about $3 671 000. SEG 2006 Annual Report 7 Finally, I would be remiss if I did not take this opportuni- beginning of 2007. The backlog was about four months in ty to thank the following people, without whose guidance and mid-2006. help this job would have been beyond me: The policies adopted during the past several years, includ- ing the adoption of an online review system and additions of • the members of the Finance Committee: Susie Peebler, several new sections (GEOPHYSICS Letters, Annual Meeting Steve Hill, Randy Byrne, and Charlie Smith Selections, and Geophysical Software and Algorithms) by the • the members of the Executive Committee, especially Terry previous editorial teams, and the implementation of the new Young turnaround schedules, are yielding results. This progress • the staff in Tulsa, especially Nancy Carter. would not have been possible without strong support from GEOPHYSICS staff at SEG. The time from submission to accep- tance is now six months, down from 13.5 months. Time from Yonghe Sun, editor submission to publication is now 12.5 months, down from 20 months. By early 2007, with the four-month publication This report summarizes the major new developments in backlog cleared, the median time from submission to publica- GEOPHYSICS in the past year. Our focus is on reducing GEO- tion is expected to be shortened further by 3–4 months to be PHYSICS’ review and publication turnaround time. less than nine months. Reviews for the Seismic Interferometry special supplement In the coming year, reducing the turnaround time will con- were completed at the beginning of 2006 and the supplement tinue to be our main emphasis. In addition, this year’s statis- is scheduled to mail with the July–August issue of GEO- tics on the ratio of papers from industry and academia contin- PHYSICS. ues to show the journal is receiving more participation by geo- We have a new special section on Marine Controlled- physicists from the industry. GEOPHYSICS should further Source Electromagnetic Methods to promote the technical encourage peer-reviewed expository discussions and provide exchange of information in this field that has recently seen platforms for cross-validating practical interpretation and pro- exciting applications to hydrocarbon exploration. The first cessing workflows that solve real world problems. round of reviews for the section is under way. Total number of papers submitted for publication in GEO- EOPHYSICS Although G remains the premier publication in PHYSICS July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006: 350 applied geophysics, some authors find the wait too long and have elected to publish in other journals. The GEOPHYSICS edi- Table 1. Origin of papers submitted for publication in EOPHYSICS torial team and G staff at SEG have taken steps in GEOPHYSICS by country recent years to address this problem. We have implemented July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006 several new measures in the past year to further reduce GEO- PHYSICS’ turnaround time. USA ...... 149 China ...... 28 New review schedule. We set a goal of reducing GEOPHYSICS’ median review time (from submission to final decision) to about Canada ...... 22 one year. This goal was set after a review of turnaround times India ...... 13 and practices of other journals was published by a few of SEG’s United Kingdom ...... 13 peer societies. All members on the editorial team have commit- Norway ...... 12 ted to providing high-quality reviews in a timely manner. Australia ...... 10 Italy ...... 10 New production schedule. The SEG Publications Depart- Netherlands ...... 9 ment has been taking bold steps, including the change in com- Egypt ...... 8 position vendors to AIP, to reduce the time from acceptance Brazil ...... 7 to publication. SEG and AIP have made significant progress Saudi Arabia ...... 7 and implemented step-by-step production schedules to Germany ...... 5 achieve the goal of publishing a paper online within 2–3 France ...... 5 months of acceptance. Switzerland ...... 5 Czech Republic ...... 4 Reduction of publication backlog. Toward the end of 2005, Korea ...... 4 Turkey ...... 4 GEOPHYSICS publication had a backlog of a few months. The reduction in review cycles had resulted in a flood of newly Venezuela ...... 4 accepted papers for the period between November 2005 and Denmark ...... 3 March 2006 and exacerbated the backlog problem. The SEG Israel ...... 3 Executive Committee has approved budget variances to allow Japan ...... 3 Algeria ...... 2 GEOPHYSICS to publish large issues (65 papers/per issue, twice the normal size) until the publication backlog is cleared by the Hungary ...... 2 Iran ...... 2 8 SEG 2006 Annual Report Ireland ...... 2 Table 4. Manuscript handling statistics Nigeria ...... 2 Spain ...... 2 Average number of days Croatia (Hrvatska) ...... 1 Year published between acceptance Indonesia ...... 1 July 1–June 30 and publication Mexico ...... 1 Oman ...... 1 1991–92 ...... 176 Romania ...... 1 1992–93 ...... 181 Russia ...... 1 1993–94 ...... 178 South Africa ...... 1 1994–95 ...... 210 Sweden ...... 1 1995–96 ...... N/A Taiwan ...... 1 1996–97 ...... N/A Trinidad and Tobago ...... 1 1997–98 ...... 180 1998–99 ...... 177 Total ...... 350 1999–2000 ...... 202 2000–01 ...... 208 Table 2. Origin of papers submitted for publication in 2001–02 ...... 213 GEOPHYSICS by employer 2002–03 ...... 195 July 1, 2005–June 30, 2006 2003–04 ...... 161 2004–05 ...... 158 Universities ...... 206 2005–06 ...... 181 Research institutes ...... 50 Oil companies ...... 45 Service companies and manufacturers ...... 30 Governments ...... 11 Consultants ...... 6 Instrument companies ...... 1 Mining ...... 1

Total ...... 350

Table 3...... Manuscript handling statistics

Year submitted Average number of days July 1–June 30 required for first review

1991–92 ...... 172 1992–93 ...... 157 1993–94 ...... 184 1994–95 ...... 182 1995–96 ...... 211 1996–97 ...... 186 1997–98 ...... 205 1998–99 ...... 214 1999–2000 ...... 212 2000–01 ...... 211 2001–02 ...... 178 2002–03 ...... 133 2003–04 ...... 141 2004–05 ...... 105 2005–06* ...... 65

* First reviews have not been returned for all papers. SEG 2006 Annual Report 9 10 SEG 2006 Annual Report Reports of the Standing Committee Chairmen

ton and twice in New Orleans with one more walk-through Advisory meeting in New Orleans. A great deal of our work was carried Peter M. Duncan, chairman out by e-mail as we were not all in New Orleans. The meeting will include more than 500 technical presenta- Membership in this year’s Advisory Committee consisted of tions. This year’s Technical Program Committee had a very dif- the five most recent past presidents: Craig J. Beasley, Peter M. ficult time paring a near record of submitted abstracts. Eleven Duncan, Mike Bahorich, Sally G. Zinke, and Walter S. Lynn. concurrent technical sessions will run over three and a half days. The committee had an initial meeting during the 2005 Annual The Applied Science Program will include a presentation by one Meeting and met again in January in conjunction with an Hon- of the world’s leading astronomers—Richard Binzel, professor of ors and Awards Committee meeting in Houston. Other discus- Planetary Science in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and sions during the year were accomplished by e-mail and tele- Planetary Sciences at MIT, and a widely recognized expert on phone. Pluto and asteroids. His topic will be “Exploration of the Pluto The committee has no formal charge other than to advise New Horizons Mission.” the serving president and Executive Committee upon request. At the time I am writing this report, both sponsorship and The committee did receive one specific assignment this year. sales of exhibit space are ahead of our budget expectations. An At the request of the president, the committee engaged an out- additional challenge this year will be in getting volunteers to assist side consultant to conduct an independent review of SEG’s during the conference. Many companies and individuals have compensation and benefit program for the Tulsa business stated their plan to show support for the conference by offering office staff. Foreman and Associates, Inc., of Tulsa, was select- assistance. As we approach the date of the meeting, we anticipate ed to perform this audit from three competitive bids. The the spirit of New Orleans to be on display through this commu- audit was performed over the period March 1 to April 15. The nity effort. committee then reviewed the audit and presented its observa- The golf tournament on October 5 will be hosted by tions on the audit findings and recommendations for action to Audubon Golf Course, in Aububon Park (a short ride down the Executive Committee on April 25 in Houston. St. Charles Avenue). A very interesting spouses’ program includes a talk by Elsie Martinez who wrote “Growing up in New Orleans,” a tour of Seventy-Sixth Annual Meeting the Herman-Grimma house in the French Quarter, and of the Albert (Al) P. Brown, general chairman plantation house at Oak Alley (as well as food). A Global Theater “Africa on the Horizon” will showcase The 76th Annual Meeting will be held in New Orleans, exhibitors from Africa and presentations that illustrate the Louisiana, October 1–6. This meeting is a really big boost to business, geophysical, and geologic complexities of the area. the geoscientists situated in New Orleans and also a big vote of The Wednesday night gala “The Celebration,” will offer confidence that the SEG Executive Committee has in the city jazz, a Mardi Gras parade, food, drink, and dancing—similar of New Orleans—which we all know sustained significant to what we had in 1998—and will be held in the headquarters damages in late 2005. I am pleased to say that we are on track hotel, Hilton New Orleans Riverside. to have an outstanding meeting. All parts of the city being uti- All this and more will take place at the 76th SEG Annual lized in our meeting are now up and running. For a while hav- Meeting. As always, the “Kickoff” event will be the Sunday ing the meeting as scheduled for New Orleans was in doubt, night Icebreaker in the Exhibition Hall. but after adequate reassurances the Executive Committee Please take this as my personal invitation to come to expe- voted to continue as planned. rience the spirit of this fine city. See you in New Orleans! The steering committee consists of Warren A. Mautz, gener- al vice chairman; Rocky Detomo Jr., Technical Program chair- Constitution and Bylaws man; Jacob W. Brown, Special Programs chairman; Gordon J. McCoullough, exhibitors chairman; Laura F. Serpa, Applied Sci- Dan A. Ebrom, chairman ence Education Program chairman; Michael J. A. Burianyk and Guy W. Purnell, vice chairman Klaas Koster, International Showcase cochairmen; Rosemary Austin, Spouses’ Program chairman; and Ellen F. Clark, arrange- For the past two years, issues have come to the fore which ments chairman. The steering committee has met twice in Hous- spanned the gamut from the straightforward and easy to the

11 12 SEG 2006 Annual Report difficult and contentious. I would first like to thank all com- for the 2008 DISC. In April, EAGE and SEG DISC subcom- mittee members who have been both hardworking and frank mittee approved Bill Abriel (ChevronTexaco) as the 2008 in the execution of our collective duties: Roy Clark, Jack DISC instructor. Abriel has accepted and is currently working Kruppenbach, Guy Purnell, Bryan DeVault, Walter E. John- on his material. son, and Bill Barkhouse. The subcommittee will meet this summer to develop a list This year the committee reviewed the bylaws of the Aso- of viable candidates for the 2009 DISC. ciación Colombiana de Geólogos y Geofísicos del Petrolero Lastly, we thank SEG staff members Peter Pangman, Bill (ACGGP) which petitioned to join SEG: They met the SEG cri- Underwood, and Candice Chinsethagid, who actually com- teria and were chartered as a new section on January 31, 2006. plete the plans and do all the hard work the committee can Perhaps the most difficult conversations our committee conceive. have had this year have been on the topic of the status of asso- ciate membership, and the standards for promotion to active membership. This apparently trivial topic carries within it the Development and Production seeds of bigger questions, such as how the franchise to change John R. Waggoner, chairman our Society will, or might, be redistributed in the coming years. Although the individual committee member views on There have been some challenges this year for the Develop- these topics have frequently been at odds, everyone involved ment and Production Committee, but those have been over- has been clearly dedicated to the goal of maintaining SEG as come. The biggest issues stem from the 2006 D&P forum to the world’s premier applied geophysical society. be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil on August 7–11 at the “Deep- water Challenges in Exploration, Development, and Produc- tion” forum cosponsored by Society of Exploration Geophysi- Continuing Education cists, the Sociedade Brasileira de Geofisica (SBGf), and the Jon Conaway Latin American Geophysical Union (ULG). Michael Payne is chairing the organizing committee that includes members The Continuing Education Committee had a busy and from the other societies, and Kristi Smith is working closely successful year marked by several changes. The first was the with SBGf to ensure meeting logistics are well coordinated and decision of Frank Brown to step down from the chairmanship properly arranged. Payne and Smith deserve a great deal of after several years of exceptional service. credit for handling the issues that come with holding the meet- We continue to update and upgrade the curriculum, and ing outside a United States venue. added three new courses to the curriculum this year: The speaker at the D&P luncheon at the 2006 SEG Annu- al Meeting in New Orleans will be Nader C. Dutta, chief geo- • Migration without Math (OK, a Little Greek Math), by scientist, Reservoir Seismic Services, Schlumberger, and a Bee Bednar; member of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Methane • Marine Electromagnetic Methods for Hydrocarbon Hydrates Advisory Committee. His topic is “Natural Gas Exploration (CSEM), by Steve Constable; Hydrates: Detection and Quantification of This Potential • Seismic Data Processing, by Steve Hill Hydrocarbon Resource and Drilling Hazard.” Plans are proceeding for the 2007 summer D&P forum. We are also adding a new education week in Houston, Larry Lines, from the University of Calgary, will chair the which will bring the total to four: north Houston in the fall, forum on “Overcoming Geophysical Challenges in Heavy Oil and west Houston, New Orleans, and Calgary in the spring. Development and Production,” along with Mike Batzle of the Course enrollment continues to be strong—we offered 18 Colorado School of Mines, and Doug Schmitt of the Univer- public courses with an enrollment of 364, six section-spon- sity of Alberta. While the venue has not been determined, sored courses with an enrollment of 207, and have a scheduled Smith is working with the organizers to select a location in contract course in June with an enrollment of 100. Canada; possibilities are Calgary, Kananaskis, or Edmonton. The Distinguished Instructor Short Course (DISC) also And finally, many thanks to Roger Turpening for chairing underwent changes this year. Perhaps the most significant this committee for the past few years. Well done. event was the “retirement” of Bradley Birkelo as chairman, and his replacement by Tad Smith (Veritas). The success of the DISC program in the past few years has largely been due to Distinguished Lecture Birkelo’s hard work, dedication, and enthusiasm. William (Bill) L. Abriel During this past year, several new members were named to the DISC subcommittee: Doug Foster (ConocoPhillips), Martin Rebecca Latimer was the fall 2005 SEG/AAPG Distin- Albertin (BP), Ken Tubman (Veritas), and Frank Brown (Digi- guished Lecturer speaking on the topic of inversion. Latimer tal Prospectors, Inc.). Their service is appreciated. traveled extensively throughout North America, and to other Most of our time was spent finalizing selection for the 2007 international sites and reached a large number of people. DISC (Biondo L. Biondi), and compiling a list of candidates Latimer’s audiences consisted of a significant number of non- SEG 2006 Annual Report 13 geophysicists who appreciated how she was able to speak to leadership. Committee members Lynn Asher, Denise Burke, them as well as to geophysicists. Carmen M. Comis, Liz Ivie, and Amanda R. Jones were avail- A special event in the fall of 2005 was the SEG 75th- able throughout the year to collect ideas and field questions Anniversary-Distinguished Lecturer Panos Kelamis. Kelamis regarding exhibiting at the meeting and for enhancing benefits was able to visit many international sites with a well received talk to exhibitors. The committee also was involved with the on an important and challenging topic, multiple attenuation. Applied Science Program and other volunteer activities. Gary Mavko, the spring 2006 Distinguished Lecturer, pre- The committee surveys exhibiting companies of all sizes to sented “Rock Physics Strategies for Facies and Fluids Map- look for benefits to the exhibiting companies during the meet- ping.” Mavko’s lecture was well received and widely recog- ing. Over the last year, there were two major initiatives. A sug- nized as an important contribution to the SEG community. gestion that became reality was the commercial theater which The fall 2006 SEG/AAPG Distinguished Lecture will be allows exhibitors to promote their products and services in a presented by William A. Fahmy of Exxon Mobil, and titled 100-seat setting. Another idea initiated last year was the mall “DHI/AVO Best Practices Methodology and Applications.” concept in the exhibit hall; larger exhibitors had booths on the This talk promises to be a useful discussion of the business sig- outside corners of the hall, enabling better traffic flow. nificance of systematically employing a consistent methodolo- Booth sales for the 2006 Annual Meeting were at 926 as of gy for seismic amplitude analysis. July 1. This number is in line with the 2005 Annual Meeting Len Srnka of ExxonMobil is preparing his talk on con- in Houston, and early indications are that New Orleans will be trolled-source electromagnetics (CSEM) practices and exam- a strong event. We hope to have a record turnout! ples. Srnka is widely known for his expertise on this interest- ing and timely topic. Thanks to the persistence and effort of the SEG Online ini- Foundation Board of Directors tiative, the SEG Web site now contains most of the more Richard A. Baile, chairman recent distinguished lectures and are receiving a significant number of Web visits—5000 viewings from August 2005 to The Foundation Board of Directors welcomed four new May 2006. These recorded presentations are a way to reach the directors appointed by SEG President Terry Young. These international community and have set the precedent for dis- appointments increased the number of directors serving on the tinguished lectures in future years. Foundation Board from nine to 11. The new directors, Mark Also under consideration for 2007 is a proposal being pre- Gregg, Susan Mastoris Peebler, Vicki Messer, and Zee Wang sented to the SEG Executive Committee to institute an inter- joined sitting directors Dick Baile, Gary Servos, Charlie national SEG regional lecturer program as a companion pro- Smith, Bill Barkhouse, Elwin Peacock, Brian Russell, and gram to the long established SEG distinguished lecturer pro- Gene Sparkman. gram. The goals are similar, but the regional lecturer program The Foundation Board thanked retiring directors Bob differs from the distinguished lecturer program in that the Graebner and Lee Lawyer by recognizing their many contri- focus is to transfer knowledge within a region and thereby butions to the improvement of the Foundation’s structure and strengthen the services SEG provides to an expanding global operations. The board looks forward to the continued support membership. Lectures may be given in English or a language of Graebner and Lawyer in their roles as directors emeritus. more appropriate for the region. Selection as SEG regional lec- During the past year the progress of the Major Gifts Cam- turer is an honor that will be acknowledged by the Society. paign, under the leadership of Bill Barkhouse, along with The regional lecturer program will be aligned with six geo- strong support from Peter Pangman and Debbie Starnes of the graphic regions based on considerations of the number of Tulsa staff, exceeded all expectations. Lending their support as SEG-affiliated sections and cost efficiency. The regions are honorary chairs are Rutt Bridges, past SEG president; Luke South and East Asia; Pacific South; Europe; Middle East and Corbett, CEO Kerr-McGee Corporation; Decker Dawson, Africa; Central and South America; and North America. Each chairman Dawson Geophysical; John Gibson, CEO Paradigm regional lecturer will visit approximately 10 locations in the Geophysical; Scott Petty, former CEO Petty-Ray Geophysical; region and will also make a presentation at the SEG Annual Booth Strange (now deceased), former CEO Western Geo- Meeting. The goal is to sponsor one lecturer in each region physical; Aubra Tilley, retired founder and former CEO of annually, and to visit every section and student section at least Input-Output; and Xu Wenrong, assistant president China once in a three-year period with either an SEG regional lec- National Petroleum Corporation. turer or an SEG distinguished lecturer. During 2005, the SEG Executive Committee reserved $1 million for the Foundation’s Major Gifts Campaign. These funds match individual gifts of $5000 to $50 000. This has Exhibitors resulted in matching a number of substantial individual con- Gordon J. McCoullough, chairman tributions, thus doubling their impact on the programs select- ed by the donors. Since inception in 1999, the Exhibitors Committee has A majority of Foundation directors and SEG Executive relayed concerns and ideas of exhibiting companies to the SEG Committee members and others have generously given or 14 SEG 2006 Annual Report pledged financial support for the major gift effort. We believe 2006. The committee meets on a regular basis to perform this initiative will successfully conclude by elevating the Foun- quarterly reviews of investment management performance. As dation’s ability to provide increased support to worthwhile a result of the increase in assets, the committee has added more programs on the order of five times what has been experienced investment managers and repositioned certain assets, all of in the past. which helped increase the Foundation’s portfolio asset value. Major programs supported through the Foundation’s The Foundation thanks Nancy Carter, Melanie Laster, and fundraising efforts include the following: Nancy Preston of the Tulsa staff for their accounting expertise and for providing timely reports to the board. SEG Online. Geophysical expertise must be available to meet As chairman of the SEG Foundation Board, I am very the pace of today’s activity. SEG’s Web presence will provide grateful for the hard work, time, and money being poured into information access, education, and peer support as well as the Foundation major gifts initiative. This effort has captured serve as a beacon to youth. During 2006, the Foundation pro- the enthusiasm and unbelievable support of the Foundation vided $200 000 in funding for the initial growth phase of SEG board, honorary chairmen, Major Gifts Campaign cabinet, the Online. Trustee Associates Steering Committee, chaired by Gary Ser- vos, and our very able Tulsa staff under the direction of Mary SEG Live. The Distinguished Instructor Short Course Fleming. (DISC), Distinguished Lecturer, and the new Regional Lec- The board would also like to thank Karen Dittert, chair- turer programs will be expanded to further strengthen the peer man of the SEG Scholarship Committee, Rod Cottrell, Foun- networks that are a core enabler to the advance of technology, dation liaison to the Scholarship Committee, and Brian and to share the excitement of geophysical careers with stu- Young, Tulsa staff, for their commitment and dedication to dents. The Foundation currently provides approximately $90 the scholarship program. 000 per year to support the DISC program. As one can see, we have many energetic and dedicated peo- ple working to make our Society and its foundation stronger SEG Innovation. Innovation requires interchange of ideas and more effective. I urge each one who reads this to get among creative thinkers. SEG has excelled at providing fertile behind this group and lend support to our efforts. ground for this, but the pace can be accelerated through an We welcome your interest and support of this great effort expanded program of focused forums and the Foundation’s being put forth by so many. Projects of Merit program. The Foundation awarded Projects of Merit funding totaling $65 000 to nine innovative projects. Foundation Trustee Associates SEG Student Sections. Students have organized to strength- Steering Committee en their connection to SEG, and by doing so have created Gary G. Servos, chairman opportunities to develop leadership skills and strengthen their education. Travel grant programs make certain that students The Trustee Associates continue to support the activities of have the opportunity to attend the SEG annual meetings and the SEG Foundation. As the fund-raising efforts are imple- other meetings and workshops throughout the year. During mented, the Trustee Associates play a major role in support of 2006, the Foundation awarded $10 000 in PCs for Student these efforts and continue to be significant contributors to the Section grants, $20 000 in Annual Meeting travel grants and, campaign. as a result of a special partnership with the Colorado School of The 2006 annual meeting of the Trustee Associates was Mines, $17 000 in travel grants for the SEG/EAGE Summer held in Charleston, South Carolina, and the 2007 meeting is Research Workshop in Utah. scheduled for San Antonio, Texas. The annual meeting of the Trustee Associates, including spouses, combines daily meet- SEG Scholarships. The scholarship program faces two big ings to review and discuss SEG Foundation status, activities, challenges: to increase the number of emerging nation awards plans, tour local attractions, or enjoy a game or two of golf on and to maintain the financial relevance of developed nation a scenic course, partake of excellent local cuisine, and visit with awards. This year, 147 scholarships totaling $271 450 were friends and associates. A highlight of each annual meeting is awarded. More than 50 of the scholarships were awarded to the current Society president’s presentation on the state of the students studying in universities outside the United States. Society. Each of these programs is scheduled for expansion through The Trustee Associates luncheon during the 2006 SEG the growth of the Foundation’s major gift initiative titled, Annual Meeting in New Orleans will present and honor the Advancing Geophysics Today and Inspiring Geoscientists for donors who have made gifts to the Foundation Major Gifts Tomorrow. Campaign and present an up-to-date status of the Foundation The past year the Foundation Investment Committee, activities. Since the 2005 annual meeting luncheon, the fol- chaired by Charlie Smith, has overseen an expansion in port- lowing individuals have become Trustee Associates: Frank folio assets from $8.8 million to $11.1 million as of April 1, Brown, David Monk, Robert Peebler, and Sally G. Zinke. SEG 2006 Annual Report 15 SEG continues its support of the ISEF held in Indianapo- Geoscience Center lis this year. Richard Nolen-Hoeksema, ISEF subcommittee Gary M. Hoover, chairman chairman, led an SEG judging team, and he, along with Susan Henley, administered awards to winners including top SEG The objective of the Geoscience Center (GC) is to interest winner Jonathan Bell, age 17, of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Future youth in the study of the geosciences and to encourage future SEG-sponsored financial awards for ISEF will be assisted by a careers in geosciences. The GC has focused its operating activ- Foundation endowment from Mr. and Mrs. Richard Baile. ities into four major areas: youth programs, youth education The committee is seeking changes to the SEG ISEF award outreach, science fairs and awards, and historical preservation. structure to remain in alignment with other sponsoring orga- After recently assuming responsibility for oversight of the nizations. International Science and Engineering Fair activities of SEG, the committee is now responsible for all SEG K-12 programs. Historical preservation. The Geoscience Center was a key contributor to SEG’s 75th-anniversary celebration year. It pro- Youth programs. Under direction of Administrator Susan vided the archival photographs for the TLE articles, the SEG Henley, more than a dozen educational projects and many online daily history photographs, assistance in the develop- more exhibits are available to student groups touring the Geo- ment of the DVD “Reflections in the Field” with original science Center. Last year, nearly 3000 students received hands- video footage and photos, and the 21 eight-foot tall historical on instruction in geophysics, geology, and oil and gas technol- decade kiosks for the Houston Annual Meeting, the Geo- ogy with the assistance of docents. A recent donation of a 48- science-Geophysics Timeline and the Exploration Geophysics— channel seismic recorder will allow hands-on demonstration of Petroleum Industry Timeline (authored by Geoscience Center seismic acquisition. In June, the Geoscience Center partnered committee member John Stockwell) that was distributed to all with the Oklahoma Energy Resources Board to host a 60- SEG members via insert in the SEG @75 special publication, teacher workshop in Tulsa. and collaboration with the Geophysical Society of Houston to An educational curriculum will guide the future develop- create the historical exhibits and theater at the 75th Annual ment and evaluation of new educational programs and projects Meeting. at the center. This curriculum, being formulated by a com- The Geoscience Center received generous historical artifact mittee of teachers and industry representatives, will ensure donations this year. Louis Schneider donated a scale model of meeting the expectations of both industry and educational the seismic vessel, The Gary Chouest, on behalf of Edison institutions. Chouest Offshore. This ship display is extremely popular with touring student groups. Herbert Valliant of ZLS Corporation, Youth education outreach. Educational programs and Austin, Texas, facilitated the donation of analog control elec- resources are developed, their effectiveness evaluated with tronics for LaCoste & Romberg air/sea gravity meter circa touring student groups and then collected at the center for dis- 1970. A surveying altimeter-microaltimeter base station man- tribution to the SEG community worldwide. More than 500 ufactured by American Paulin Systems was donated in June by sets of the seismic cube interpretation package were distributed Daniel Finnefrock/Amerada Hess Corporation of Tulsa. this past year. It was extremely popular with students in Cara- SEG contributed historical geophysical artifacts to the cas, Venezuela, at the Sociedad de Geofisica de la Universidad Oklahoma History Center Petroleum History gallery that Central de Venezuela under the direction of SEG Vice Presi- opened in November 2005 in Oklahoma City, and loaned dent María Ángela Capello. materials to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum during the Global Affairs Committee members contributed new trans- grand opening of its new planetarium in April. lations of existing downloadable Web site materials in Spanish, Plans include addition of an exhibit of the original Karcher Chinese, Russian, Italian, and Arabic. It is planned to contin- seismograms, currently in SEG possession, and displays of geo- ue the expansion of outreach programs by organizing a more physical instruments spanning the era from the 1960s to cur- formal distribution network, designating regional coordina- rent. Working models of geophysical equipment are of tors, and by packaging the projects. This will help educators extreme interest and high educational value to students. Con- and others who coordinate and supervise the distributed tributions such as seismic sources (e.g., air gun) are sought. hands-on activities at remote sites. The committee is seeking new ideas for outreach and interested SEG members to help Virtual Geoscience Center. Due to the dedication of com- with this worthwhile and challenging endeavor. mittee volunteers, the Virtual Geoscience Center is adding new material, improving functionality, and moving to support Science fairs and awards. The Geoscience Center again par- the larger SEG effort toward increasing online resources for ticipated in the Tulsa Engineering Challenge (TEC), a pro- students and SEG members worldwide. With three major pro- gram to encourage engineering and technical interest in high- jects in the SEG Five-Year Online Plan, the Geoscience Cen- school students. A booth manned by geoscientist volunteers ter Web site looks forward to redesigning and updating its exhibited geologic, seismological, and exploration principles World Wide Web presence and services. and distributed educational materials to students and teachers. 16 SEG 2006 Annual Report SEG shows great leadership. This multifaceted effort to One of the new procedures discussed and adopted in our advance the Geoscience Center as a youth educational resource winter meeting was using the eCommunities system for dis- development center, a distribution center for educational cussing items during the year, involving GAC members who materials and awards, along with historical archival responsi- cannot attend the committee meetings in person. Voting by e- bilities is a valuable component of the Society. SEG is recog- mail is being tested for possible major recommendations of the nized as a leader in youth geoscience educational efforts and, GAC, the same way that has been done for years in nominat- through the foresight and essential support of membership, ing the candidate for the GAC chairman position. this dedication to youth education will, in time, bring new tal- Yoram Shoham was awarded GAC honorary membership ent, ideas, and excitement to the industry. status for his years of work on the GAC and for SEG—espe- cially in the FSU region. The GAC passed the motion to form an advisory committee which would be comprised of former Global Affairs GAC chairmen and honorary members. Aldo L. Vesnaver, chairman The GAC formed 10 task forces and appointed GAC mem- David M. Pitcher, vice chairman bers who did not have a role as a country representative or regional coordinator to help team leaders from each task force. Vikram Sen, past chairman The purpose was to work jointly to support similar SEG com- mittees in expanding their goals, activities, and members to Wonderful international growth let SEG pass the record of include the global community. nearly 24 000 members in 2006. This expansion highlighted Task force leaders are as follows: the main challenges that the Global Affairs Committee (GAC) faced this year: facilitating new SEG international offices, and Global Spotlight, Mike Burianyk promoting fair representation of international members in K–12, María Ángela Capello terms of voting rights. International offices, Aldo L. Vesnaver The organization of major international meetings outside Membership, Ralph Bridle the United States can benefit a lot from local offices world- Networking issues, Vikram Sen wide. This is already done by the international oil companies PCs for students, David M. Pitcher and contractors, who populate the producing areas with local Projects, Aldo L. Vesnaver branches. SEG has been planning over the last few years to set Student Sections, David M. Pitcher up international offices where significant communities of geo- Sponsorship, Fred Aminzadeh physicists are active. Our committee provided information, Translations, Mike Burianyk advice, and actual contacts for areas we considered strategic for SEG, i.e. Russia, China, India, and the Middle East. For Rus- PCs for Students Sections Program (David Pitcher, task force sia (Moscow) and India (Dehradun), preliminary business leader). Twenty-four applications from SEG student sections in plans were delivered. 13 countries were received for the 2005 PCs for Students Pro- Probably for the first time, the Global Affairs Committee gram. The SEG Foundation provided a grant of $12 500 during held its winter meeting outside the United States, in nearby 2005–2006, enabling the purchase of computer systems for six Calgary, Canada, on March 13–14, 2006. We chose this different sections. Upon evaluation of the applications, systems venue for its relevant number of geophysicists, and for the ease were awarded to the following universities: Ain Shams Universi- of getting a visa for international members, which is becoming ty, Egypt; Ankara University, Turkey; Bandung Institute of more and more difficult in the United States. Technology, Indonesia; Kazakh National Technical University, During our winter meeting, we discussed and approved pro- Kazakhstan; University of Bucharest, Romania; and University posals for possible changes to the SEG Constitution and Bylaws. of Buea, Cameroon. The committee felt that the current distribution of voting rights In addition, Hampson-Russell and Seismic Micro-Tech- unfairly penalized the international membership, and that the nology have agreed to provide free educational licenses for objectives of the Society would be better served if all members their geophysical software. SEG would like to thank these were allowed to vote. We proposed to grant voting rights to companies for their continued support of this program. associate members, and to automatically upgrade associate to New translations were completed for the K-12 initiative, to active members after four years of SEG membership. This attract teenagers worldwide for possible studies in geosciences. approach has been adopted by the Society of Petroleum Engi- The GAC Spotlight is published in TLE with Mike Burianyk as neers (SPE), Canadian SEG (CSEG), and the European Associ- guest editor. It includes information on international confer- ation of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE), among others. ences, workshops, sections, student activities, and GAC projects Unfortunately, our proposals were rejected by the SEG Execu- and challenges. The GAC Web site received a major facelift with tive Committee. Only a minor step forward is being done by the posting of country and regional reports and photos of the simplifying the procedure for active membership. I hope that regional coordinators, thanks to the efforts of Vikram Sen. the new Executive Committee will proceed much further along A symbiosis continued with the International Showcase this way, making SEG a truly democratic and global society. organization, dedicated this year to the theme, “Africa on the SEG 2006 Annual Report 17 Horizon.” The two cochairmen, Mike Burianyk and Klaas reviewing assistance from committee members, has organized Koster, are among the most active GAC members. Wafik Bey- three technical oral sessions and one poster session. The G&M doun, a past chairman, is coordinator of the Global Theater. luncheon, organized by Jerry Hensel and Dave Oxley, will fea- An important action of the committee is facilitating excel- ture Anthony D. Socci, senior fellow, American Meteorologi- lent internationally oriented speakers for the international lun- cal Society, speaking on near-term and long-term effects of cli- cheons during the Annual Meeting. This year, the following mate change. Guy Flanagan and Dave Oxley are organizing speakers were arranged: the postconvention workshop titled “The Bishop Model: Investigations into the Use and Abuse of Test Models.” • Former Soviet Union/European: Robert Peebler, president Our committee is also heavily involved in SEG publication Input/Output, “Making the Vision of Fully Sampled, activities. The January 2006 issue of THE LEADING EDGE had Full-Wave Imaging a Reality” a special section on magnetic gradiometry. The articles, edited • Africa/Middle East: Hassan Hataba, Egyptian Ministry of by Terry McConnell, were derived from the 2004 Annual Petroleum, “Exploration and Product Recent Successes in Meeting postconvention workshop. The “Meter Reader” col- Egypt” umn, organized by Bob Van Nieuwenhuise, continues as a reg- • Latin American: Hugo Pelliza, Petrobras, “Exploration ular TLE feature. Work organized by Stuart Hall, Dale Bird, Outlook for Argentina, a Present Challenge” Pat Millegan, and Jerry Hensel is in progress to update L. L. • Pacific/Asia: Sukusen Sumarinda, vice president Pertamina, Nettleton’s gravity and magnetics monograph. “The Oil and Gas Business Opportunities in Indonesia and The G&M Committee continues improving its Web pres- the New Role of Pertamina,” and Apurba Saha, president ence through the SEG-hosted Web site and an active exchange SPG-India, ONGC, India, “SPG-Initiative to Promote Geo- of gravity and magnetics related issues between SEG members physics” and nonmembers over the list server hosted by Columbia Uni- versity. Chuck Campbell oversees these Web activities. Several new regional coordinators and national representa- Bimonthly dinner talks are organized by committee member tives were appointed, injecting new blood in the largest SEG Dale Bird for presentation through the Potential Fields SIG of committee—more than 140 members. In this way, our com- the Geophysical Society of Houston. Continuing Education mittee is ready to support further the main goal of SEG, i.e., activities continue with Michal Ellen Ruder presenting a grav- disseminating science and professional skills, at the highest ity and magnetics methods and interpretation short course sev- level and to the broadest international community. eral times a year. As usual, the kind and superlative efficiency of Pamela The chairmanship of the Gravity and Magnetics Commit- Terekhova is what often built a solid bridge between the GAC tee is on a two-year rotation with the vice chairman taking plans and their actual implementation. over next. My term will be completed at this year’s upcoming SEG Annual Meeting in New Orleans; it has been my pleasure to keep potential fields in play for solving the puzzles which Gravity and Magnetics continue to confront all explorationists. David R. Oxley Jr., chairman E. Gerald Hensel, vice chairman Honors and Awards Sally G. Zinke, chairman The Gravity and Magnetics Committee (G&M) serves as a focus for activities within the Society dealing with gravity and One of the most important functions of our professional magnetics and promotes the knowledge and use of these poten- society is honoring those who have made important contribu- tial field methods. Our committee meets twice a year—April and tions to the profession and to science. By unanimous agree- again at the Annual Meeting. Committee members are instru- ment of the Honors and Awards Committee and the Executive mental in organizing Annual Meeting sessions and activities, pro- Committee, the 2006 honorees are: viding input to THE LEADING EDGE, advising on technical stan- dards, and overseeing the SEG G&M Web page and a dedicat- Maurice Ewing Medal: Fred J. Hilterman for his distin- ed list server which includes geophysicists outside SEG. guished contributions as a researcher in AVO relationships For the 2005 Annual Meeting, committee members orga- and applications, an educator of geophysics students and pro- nized two technical oral sessions, one poster session, and the fessionals, a disseminator of geophysical knowledge through G&M luncheon. The luncheon, as always, proved to be a pop- publications and workshops, and a volunteer in professional ular, well-attended event. Mark T. Lemmon, associate research society activities. scientist from Texas A&M, Department of Atmospheric Sci- ence, presented a talk “Exploring Mars: The Mission of the Honorary Membership: Alistair R. Brown for his outstand- Spirit and Opportunity Rovers.” ing contributions to the advancement of 3D interpretation The 2006 Annual Meeting will feature technical sessions, a technology both by enhancing the range of 3D interpretation luncheon, and a workshop. Harold Yarger, with abstract- methods and by educating geologists, geophysicists, and petro- 18 SEG 2006 Annual Report leum engineers in 3D applications for better geologic and Life Membership: Robert R. Stewart in recognition of his reservoir understanding. meritorious voluntary service to the Society, including the inaugural SEG Distinguished Educator, (a program that laid Virgil Kauffman Gold Medal: D. J. (Eric) Verschuur in the groundwork for the SEG Distinguished Instructor Pro- recognition of his outstanding work on surface-related multi- gram), as a long-time instructor with the SEG’s Continuing ple elimination (SRME), resulting in a method for multiple Education Program, and as associate editor for signal process- prediction and elimination of surface-related multiples inde- ing in GEOPHYSICS. pendent of velocity. Verschuur has developed the theory, pub- lished extensively on the subject, and provided code to the Special Commendation Award: L. C. (Lee) Lawyer, Rhonda industry through his association with the Delphi Project at G. Boone, Michael H. B. Golding, Thomas K. Fulton, and D. Delft University. G. (Gene) Womack for their service to our profession, our Society, and the public in their roles as volunteers in design, Cecil Green Enterprise Award: A. Peter Annan, Charles development, and execution of programs associated with David Leggatt, Steven W. Cosway, and Lowry Chua in recog- SEG’s 75th anniversary. The celebration included section nition for founding Sensors & Software Inc. The company was involvement, an anniversary luncheon, a special publication, established to commercialize ground-penetrating radar tech- and a DVD. nology developed by A-Cubed, Inc., a research and develop- The individuals accepting this award represent the leaders ment entity. With no outside funding and no salaries for the of the efforts, but they do not stand alone. They symbolize the initial year, the four founders worked together to launch Sen- hard work of a large number of very dedicated SEG members sors & Software. Today the company employs 50 people, has and other volunteers who have provided a living collection of products working in 80–90 countries around the world, has a our history, accomplishments, and character. 30–40% market share globally for GPR equipment, and approximately $6 million annual revenue. Distinguished Achievement Award: Compagnie Générale de Géophysique (CGG) for its contributions to the science of Reginald Fessenden Award: Daniel P. Hampson for his exploration geophysics over the past 75 years. Founded in invention of the parabolic Radon transform. This transform 1931 by Conrad Schlumberger, CGG has remained indepen- provided an approximation that is linear in the frequency dent and has contributed to the advancement of geophysics. domain and highly practical for computer coding. After its Historically CGG has been a leader in land-based multicom- publication, the algorithm was implemented by virtually all ponent seismic, time-lapse acquisition and processing, con- the processing companies in the world. This work has been verted-wave applications, portable crews, land and marine widely cited and has led in the longer term to a number of telemetry, VSP acquisition, depth migration, noise attenua- developments specifically in the field of Radon transforms and tion, and ocean bottom and conventional marine acquisition. more generally in seismic signal processing. CGG currently operates through two business sectors: Sercel, a leading international supplier of land and marine seismic J. Clarence Karcher Award: Kristopher A. H. Innanen in acquisition systems, and CGG Services, which offers onshore recognition of his work in multiple suppression, particularly and offshore seismic acquisition, seismic data processing, and significant contributions in the areas of multistage/multireso- reservoir management. lution seismic migration, the development of efficient algo- rithms for multiple removal, and development of higher order Distinguished Achievement Award: The Geological Survey imaging capability through the combination of primary pro- of Canada (GSC) for its five decades of global leadership in the cessing and inverse scattering series. He has pioneered the development of regional-scale geophysical techniques and inverse scattering series methodology in the anelastic world mining geophysical exploration equipment and methods. This with the objective of Q compensation without determining or is in no small way a result of the part played by many dedicat- knowing Q. Much of his work has been pivotal in velocity ed present and past workers in exploration geophysics at GSC. independent imaging of subsalt, subbasalt, and subkarst areas. The introduction and development of airborne, surface, and borehole geophysical measurements have benefited geophysi- Life Membership: William H. Dragoset for his significant con- cal techniques such as electromagnetics, induced polarization, tributions of service to the Society and the science of geophysics. magnetics, seismic, electrical, radiometric, and radar. In geo- He has served as a workshop organizer, on the Executive Com- physics, GSC has been more innovative and entrepreneurial mittee, on THE LEADING EDGE Editorial Board, as Publications than most government organizations. Committee chairman, and with the Research Committee. In addition, he has produced a number of technical publications Best Paper in GEOPHYSICS 2005 on ocean bottom sensors, multiples, and marine acquisition, Theory of true-amplitude one-way wave equations and true- including a “Best Paper” honorable mention. His most recent amplitude common-shot migration contribution was a comprehensive historical review for the Yu Zhang, Guanquan Zhang, and Norman Bleistein SEG’s 75th anniversary special publication. SEG 2006 Annual Report 19

Honorable Mention (GEOPHYSICS) Best Student Poster Paper Presented at 2005 Annual Full-resolution 3D GPR imaging Meeting Mark Grasmueck, Ralf Weger, and Heinrich Horstmeyer Plane-wave attenuation anisotropy in orthorhombic media Yaping Zhu and Ilya Tsvankin Best Paper in THE LEADING EDGE 2005 The first 3D/4-C ocean bottom seismic surveys in the Caspi- Award of Merit (Best Student Poster Paper) an Sea: Acquisition design and processing strategy Mapping geology and structure using multispectral and hyper- Jack Bouska and Rodney Johnston spectral data and evaluating topographic correction methods: Case study, Salmon River Mountains of east-central Idaho Honorable Mention (TLE) Yardenia Martinez, Shuhab Khan, Paul Link, and Nancy Glenn Structural interpretation of the deepwater Gunashli Field, facilitated by 4-C OBS seismic data On behalf of the Honors and Awards Committee, I con- Dominic M. Manley, Sean F. Mohammed, Nigel D. Robinson, gratulate the distinguished recipients and thank them for their and Rowland W. Thomas contributions. The Honors and Awards process succeeds by receiving nominations from individual SEG members, SEG 4D time-lapse monitoring of Chirag Field committees, and SEG sections and associated societies. We Nigel Robinson, Alan Ford, John Howie, Dominic Manley, Mar- thank all those who submitted nominations for the 2006 tin Riviere, Simon Stewart, and Rowland Thomas awards and who provided supporting letters and other docu- mentation. Future Honors and Awards committees will retain Developing the long-term seismic strategy for Azeri-Chirag- nominations for consideration of those who were not selected Gunashli, South Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan for consideration. John M. Howie, Nigel Robinson, Martin Riviere, Thomas Lyon, The Honors and Awards Committee comprises the past five and Dominic Manley SEG presidents: Sally G. Zinke, Walt S. Lynn, Mike Bahorich, Peter M. Duncan, and Craig J. Beasley. I thank my colleagues Best Paper Presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting for their diligent and thoughtful efforts in researching and con- Reconstruction of sparsely sampled data using a high-resolu- sidering the nominations for SEG’s awards—a process that has tion version of the focal transform consumed many hours of their time in 2005–2006. D. J. Verschuur and A. J. Berkhout Chairing this committee concludes my presidential obliga- tions to SEG, and I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to Honorable Mention (Best Paper) have served SEG during the past seven years. Azeri 4-C time-lapse design using 3D 4-C OBS imaging deci- mation tests Jack Bouska, John Howie, Bertram Nolte, Rodney Johnston, Interpretation Richard Alexandre, and Richard Walters W. Verney Green, chairman

Best Poster Paper Presented at the 2005 Annual Meeting The Interpretation Committee (IC) promotes best prac- Estimating polarization attributes with an adaptive covariance tices, new methods, and technologies to improve interpreta- method in the wavelet domain tion quality. This is done by encouraging SEG members to Mamadou S. Diallo, Mikhail Kulesh, Matthias Holschneider, publish their case histories and share practices at conventions Kristina Kurennaya, and Frank Scherbaum and via continuing education. The IC represents the largest segment of our SEG membership and wants to be the sound- Honorable Mention (Best Poster Paper) ing board for what interpreters want, a critical conduit for pro- Solving an imaging problem in Kuwait Oil Company’s viding what they need, and the catalyst for making our profes- Minagish Field using single-sensor acquisition and processing sion more rewarding. Jonathan Anderson, Andrew Smart, Ayman Shabrawi, Adel El- The committee is truly an integrated committee. Members Emam, and Ghassan Rached come from many different areas (exploration, development, onshore, offshore, international, academic, etc.) and use dif- Best Student Paper Presented at 2005 Annual Meeting ferent skills (seismic, potential methods, stratigraphy, structur- Automatic detection of UXO magnetic anomalies using al, etc.), but the common objective is to integrate the best extended Euler deconvolution information available in the most effective way to add maxi- Kristofer Davis, Yaoguo Li, and Misac Nabighian mum value to our business objectives. The SEG committee works especially closely with the Award of Merit (Best Student Paper) AAPG Geophysical Integration Committee. Many members Multicomponent georadar imaging that corrects for total-field serve on both committees. radiation Most importantly, we try to keep an open-door policy, and Rita Streich and Jan van der Kruk are always looking for enthusiastic members that will champi- 20 SEG 2006 Annual Report on a good cause through to completion. We look forward to your participation. Joint Meetings The IC met two times in the last year (see summaries below). Klaas Koster These meetings give us a chance to get an update on projects, share ideas, and coordinate project planning. The main meeting This committee initially reviewed the desirability of a joint this year will be at the 2006 SEG Annual Meeting in New annual meeting with SPE and/or AAPG. It became rapidly Orleans. We invite the AAPG Geophysical Interpretation Com- clear that there was considerable energy around organizing mittee and any SEG members with enthusiasm for interpretation joint workshops, but that a joint annual meeting was, for a to attend. Please send a request to [email protected], variety of reasons, not attractive in the near term. At its Janu- to ensure there is enough space. The meeting will be at 8 a.m., ary meeting, the Joint Meetings Committee reviewed a list of Monday, October 2. suggested topics for joint SPE/SEG/AAPG workshops. SEG’s suggestions came from our Research Committee, the D&P Major current projects: Forum, and from our committee. The decision was made to initially propose three intersoci- 1) “How Inaccurate is My Interpretation? A Workshop on ety workshops: Uncertainty,” Alistair Brown, Verney Green, and Bill Keach are coordinators. The workshop will be held Friday, • “Data Fusion: Combining Geological, Geophysical, and October 6, at the Annual Meeting. Engineering Data”—spring 2007—organized by SEG 2) We are again coordinating the “Best of Case Histories.” • “Mature Field Studies: Adding Value Through Integra- This session, at the Annual Meeting, contains invited tion”—fall 2007—organized by AAPG as part of the Hed- papers from Alaska, Canada, Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, West berg symposia Africa, the North Sea, and Southeast Asia. • “Pore Pressure Prediction”—spring 2008—organized by 3) Reservoir Geophysics 2 is in editing stages. SPE 4) We are hoping to publish a compilation of articles in the Geophysical Corner. Meetings Review and Planning 5) “Pitfalls in Interpretation” compilation. Klaas Koster, chairman 2005 Interpretation Committee Meeting; October 11, Houston Last year, the committee proposed a global strategy for meet- Approximately 25 members attended the annual conven- ings at levels 4 and 5. This year the committee is concentrating tion meeting. Verney Green took over as chairman and Bill on lower level meetings and other events, such as DISC and dis- Keach became vice chairman. We discussed the question “Is tinguished lectures. The committee asked the business office staff SEG doing the most it can to help the interpretation commu- to prepare a geographic overview of SEG events in the preceding nity?” Dave Johnston gave an update on Reservoir Geophysics 2. three years. The goal was to identify regions where SEG has had The pitfalls series is in need of more help to gather a series of no recent presence so they could be actively targeted for an SEG articles. Wayne Pennington has set up a Web site with links event. A three-year period between events is considered the max- to other Web pages where data are available: http://www.geo. imum before local geophysicists would no longer consider mtu.edu/spot/SeismicData/. To continue the “Best of Ses- regional events an integral benefit of Society membership. Analy- sions” at future meetings, a champion is required for a few sis of a preliminary overview suggests that SEG needs to proac- years and coordination with AAPG must be maintained. tively support events in the African region. If this is confirmed on There was debate about merging the SEG IC and AAPG GIC. the final overview, the committee will engage with the Global Members suggested that we find a common project to work Affairs Committee to identify SEG members residing in Africa together as a first step. who could be encouraged to organize a local event. Aid and sup- port to the members would be arranged to ensure that unfamil- 2006 AAPG GIC, April 9, Houston iarity with organizing an SEG event does not form an obstacle. At the AAPG GIC meeting in Houston, discussion topics The committee also reviewed 11 requests for support for local included: a special publication consisting of Geophysical Cor- meetings at levels 1–3 in the first half of the year alone. These ner papers, and holding a Houston 3D symposium. meetings span the globe with requests from Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Former Soviet Union, Japan, Our new 2007 committee chairman will be Bill Keach, and Turkey, and Venezuela. we will be voting on our new 2007 vice chairman at the Annu- al Meeting in New Orleans. It has been my pleasure to serve Membership with the SEG Interpretation Committee these last two years Roy E. Clark Jr. (2004–2006). Keep up the good work! SEG membership as of June 30, 2006, was at a record 23 975, a net increase of 1283 from last year. The current number SEG 2006 Annual Report 21 includes 41 corporate members which continue to provide great ates would qualify for active if they would apply. There has support for our Society. The membership count has increased been much discussion and many proposals made in this area steadily since 1995, when it hit a local low of 14 070. Its increase including trying to simplify the process to upgrade. One result reflects the growing health of our Society in meeting the needs of is that benefits of active membership will be promoted and exploration geophysicists around the world. active members recognized at Society events. The continuing globalization of our Society is becoming Figure 5 shows membership by category from 1980 until ever more pronounced, with the ratio of non-U.S. versus U.S. the present and illustrates that although global membership members reaching 58%/42% on June 30. Our Society encour- has decreased slightly, the numbers in active, associate, and ages all exploration geophysicists to join, whatever their geo- student have increased. graphic or economic backgrounds. SEG plans meetings, cours- Our sincere thanks go to Apache Corporation for its con- es, and activities worldwide to serve the needs of the global tinuing support and sponsorship of the Global Membership community. Program and to Halliburton for its continuing support and This report includes several figures to illustrate the state of funding of the Student Membership Program. membership in our Society. Figure 1 shows the growth of This year’s “Play Your Cards Right” Member-Get-a-Mem- membership from 1930 to the present. In 1930, there were ber Campaign encouraged current members to recruit new only 46 members. members, with prizes for those successfully recruiting the most Figure 2 shows the increasing role of global membership candidates in various categories and time periods. The since 1985. We now have more non-U.S.-based members 2005–2006 “Play your Cards Right” Member-Get-a-Member (58%) than U.S.-based members (42%). Campaign has generated 1527 new members recruited by 445 Figure 3 shows the population of our various membership SEG members during the first three quarters of the campaign. classes, comparing figures from last year with this year. Final campaign numbers and winners will be posted on the Increases occurred in all membership categories except global. SEG membership site in early October. The 2006–2007 cam- The decrease in global may be in part due to more affordable paign will kick off at the Annual Meeting in New Orleans. active and associate rates in SEG global countries. Our thanks go out to the SEG business office staff who Figure 4 is a pie chart of membership categories for the cur- manage the Membership programs throughout the year and rent year. Note that the largest membership category is now do a great job of responding to the many comments and ques- associate (35%), with active dropping to (33%). Many associ- tions from members.

Figure 1. Total SEG Membership as of June 30, 1930–2006 (includes corporate members). 22 SEG 2006 Annual Report

Figure 2. Globalization of membership as of June 30, 2006 (does not include corporate members).

Figure 3. Membership report: Fiscal years 2004–2006 (does not include corporate members [41] in totals).

Figure 4. Fiscal year 2006 membership. SEG 2006 Annual Report 23

Figure 5. Membership by classification.

speaker, Mike Doggett, was selected. Two workshops will Mining and Geothermal be held, one on uranium exploration, and one on SQUID Mary M. Poulton, chairman technology. • Awards. We will give best paper awards specifically for Michael W. Zang, vice chairman M&G sessions at the 2006 meeting. The Hohmann Award will be presented at the M&G luncheon in New In the last year, the main activity of the Mining and Geot- Orleans. The Geological Survey of Canada will receive the hermal Committee (M&G) was planning for SEG’s 76th Distinguished Achievement Award by SEG. Annual Meeting in October. Continuing a tradition started in • Publications. Several senior members (Ken Zonge, Misac 1996, the committee targets every second year for a strong Nabighian, Harry Siegel, and Norm Patterson) are writing mining community turnout at the Annual Meeting, now col- an article for THE LEADING EDGE. Pat Killeen is writing a loquially termed a “mining summit.” meta-summary of 40 years of the Geological Survey’s tech- Other events the committee was involved with during the nology reviews for THE LEADING EDGE. We hope to pro- year included: mote both articles in New Orleans. • Succession plans. The committee is pleased to announce • List server. The committee’s list server, kindly hosted by that effective with the 2006 committee meeting, Michael Geosoft, continues to provide a useful forum for our glob- Zang will assume the role of committee chairman, and al community. You can send an e-mail to majordomo@ Richard Smith will become the vice chairman. lists.geosoft.com with the text “subscribe segmin” in the • Future plans. Discussion is taking place on how to stim- body of the text. You will receive a confirmation with ulate the next technological advance in mining geophysics instructions for using the list and for unsubscribing. If you and how to work with the Society of Economic Geologists. do not receive a confirmation and welcome message by the • Safety documentation. Discussion continues on trying to end of that business day, please send a message to owner- compile best safety practices. [email protected] requesting to be added to the list. More than 170 people are signed up on the list server. • Web site. Some content and communications have been placed on the SEG eCommunities pages, but most inter- Committee on Nominations action with the community still takes place via the list serv- Craig J. Beasley, chairman er. • Committee meetings and session planning. The com- It has been a pleasure to serve this year as chairman of the mittee met twice in the past 12 months; first in 2005 at the Committee on Nominations which is comprised of SEG’s three 75th SEG Annual Meeting in Houston and then at the most recent past presidents and four active members, each repre- Prospectors and Developers annual meeting in March in senting an SEG section or associated society. The immediate past Toronto. The primary topic of discussion was the status of president serves as chairman. Each year, two of the four repre- plans for the mining program for New Orleans in 2006. sentatives of a section or associated society representatives are Papers will be solicited in honor of Doug Oldenburg at replaced by representatives of other eligible sections through a one of the M&G sessions in New Orleans. The lunch drawing conducted by the Tellers Committee. This year’s mem- 24 SEG 2006 Annual Report bers include past presidents Craig J. Beasley (chairman), Peter M. stand how members will use the site, both in terms of efficient Duncan, and Mike Bahorich. Other members are Rodolfo workflows and a streamlined user interface. Marines (Associacíon of Mexicana de Geofísicos de Explo- To that end, the previous OGB has been reorganized into ración), Tracy Stark (Dallas Geophysical Society), Aldo L. Ves- two separate committees: naver (Saudi Aramco), and David Zinzer (Potomac Geophysical Society). Bahorich, Marines, and Zinzer will retire from the com- 1) SEG Online Committee: Focused entirely on Web page mittee this year. content and redesign. The committee met briefly at the 2005 SEG Annual Meet- 2) Publications Policy Committee: Focused on member pub- ing in Houston. The remainder of its deliberations were con- lication benefits, pricing, commerciality, and intersociety ducted by e-mail and telephone conference. The geographical issues. diversity of the committee, reflecting that of the Society, makes such meeting at a distance a necessity. Members from both committees will work on overlapping The committee submitted the following slate of candidates issues, such as considering a common Web portal to access for election by the membership to the 2006–2007 Executive intersociety publications, or debating which architecture will Committee: enable members to best share algorithms to foster an environ- ment of innovation. President-elect Fred Aminzadeh SEG Online status report as of June 2006: Gérard C. Herman • The committee met with SEG staff in Tulsa to review the First vice president Roy E. Clark Jr. SEG Online Five-Year Plan, and the list of 37 potential Alan K. Faichney projects. Under the guidance of cochairman Kevin Sher- wood, the committee enlisted the professional help of out- Second vice president Michael H. Powers side consultants to scope the work requirements for each James W. Rector project and to provide a basic template for redesign. • Further, Art Schrader engaged PricewaterhouseCoopers Vice president Shane P. Coperude (PWC) to provide an audit of the SEG IT staff skills, Panos G. Kelamis determine which efforts could be outsourced, and help build a business plan, with project requirements, estimat- Secretary-treasurer Brad A. Birkelo ed costs, and a timeline for completion. Ernest S. Siraki • Results of these studies will be presented to the SEG Online Committee for feedback. The committee will meet No candidates were nominated by petition for this election. quarterly to review updates after that time. I would like to thank my fellow committee members for • In addition, and at the suggestion of PWC, an SEG the hard work, time, and energy that they put into selecting Online steering committee was formed which will serve as this slate of candidates. the committee directly responsible for the operational aspects of implementing the program. Their mission is to ensure the deliverables meet the objectives of all stake- SEG Online holders. They will work directly with the project manager Susan Mastoris Peebler, chairman and program team, incorporating input and guidance from the SEG Online Committee as well as other com- This year marks a major transition for the former Online mittees, as needed, who have a vested interest in the out- Governing Board (OGB) Committee. As background, execu- come of the design. tive committees for the last several years have recognized the increasing importance of SEG’s Web site as an invaluable source to educate our global workforce on new technologies in Project Review real time. Although the digital reference library remains the Ivan de Araújo Simões-Filho, chairman most popular use of seg.org today, new tools can be incorpo- rated to allow members around the world to view a DISC lec- It was an honor to succeed Leon Thomsen, SEG president- ture, Annual Meeting presentation, or take a Continuing Edu- elect, as chairperson of the SEG Project Review Committee. cation course—instantaneously, or at a time of their conve- This committee has the task of recommending, to the SEG nience. Interactive tutorials with links to increasingly deeper Executive Committee, which projects they should recommend technical explanations will pioneer online education and allow for funding to the SEG Foundation Board. geophysicists to stay abreast of new technologies—at their own Nineteen projects were submitted this year, for funding up to pace. $10 000 each, totaling a $155 000 budget (SEGF had initially To achieve this, however, requires a complete redesign of allocated a $55 000 budget). Many of these submissions were the underlying architecture and extensive planning to under- incomplete but I decided not to disqualify them for purely SEG 2006 Annual Report 25 bureaucratic reasons, as this would considerably reduce the num- William H. Dragoset ber of grants. These projects were distributed for review among • Near-Surface Geophysics, edited by Dwain K. Butler the members of the committee who did not have a conflict of • Seismic Attribute Mapping of Structure and Stratigraphy, by interest (for instance, had not submitted a proposal or were not Kurt J. Marfurt and Satinder Chopra (DISC book) members of an institution which submitted a proposal), but with • Seismic Data Processing with Seismic Un*x: A 2D Seismic the recommendation of giving more weight in the evaluations to Data Processing Primer, by David Forel, Thomas Benz, and those proposals which provided complete information. Wayne D. Pennington During a first round of reviews, each reviewer had seven pro- • Expanded Abstracts Historical Series on DVD-ROM jects to evaluate, and 10 points to distribute among the projects. (1982–2005) Each project was reviewed by two to four reviewers and the scores • GEOROM XII, DVD-ROM archive of GEOPHYSICS obtained by each project were normalized accordingly. Three (1936–2005) and THE LEADING EDGE (1982–2005) projects were eliminated after the first round, and the remaining • CREWES Research Collection 2006 (published by projects were reviewed by two to three reviewers, following the CREWES; SEG consignment sales) same procedures as in the first round. The committee then rec- ommended funding for the top six projects and extended the Reference publications expected by 2006 SEG Annual budget to contemplate three other projects which had merit to be Meeting in New Orleans: funded. The SEGF Board reviewed the committee’s recommen- dations and approved a $65 000 expenditure for Projects of • 3D Seismic Imaging, by Biondo L. Biondi Merit in 2006. They awarded grants to nine top-ranked projects: • Expanded Abstracts Historical Series on DVD-ROM Stanford University SEG Student Chapter; Duke University/ (1982–2006) KNUST (Ghana); University of Oklahoma; Nnamdi Azikiwe University Geophysical Society (Nigeria); Colorado School of Other works in advanced stages of production. Mines; Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (India); Univer- sity of Colorado, Boulder; San Diego State University; and the • Classics of Elastic Wave Theory, edited by Michael A. Pelissier, fall AAPG/SEG Student Expo. Henning Hoeber, Norbert van de Coevering, and Ian F. For next year we recommend notifying more potentially Jones interested institutions and putting special emphasis on the need • Seismic Attributes for Prospect Identification and Reservoir for a complete application in order to avoid disqualifications. Characterization, by Satinder Chopra and Kurt J. Marfurt We also intend to make a broader use of the eCommunities, where all documents and discussions are posted, together with In addition to the above publications, due to demand, the the committee’s ranking and recommendations. following five popular SEG books were reprinted during the Finally, I would like to thank the members of the commit- past fiscal year. tee who generously offered their valuable time and provided their reviews within the tight deadlines. They are Azra N. • Encyclopedic Dictionary of Applied Geophysics, fourth edi- Tutuncu, David R. Zinzer, Ferdinand K. Aniwa, Hermes Mal- tion, by Robert E. Sheriff cotti, Klaas Koster, Marian Morris, Samir Abdelmoaty, and • Fundamentals of Geophysical Interpretation, by Laurence R. Stephen Bannister. Lines and Rachel T. Newrick • Seismic Data Analysis: Processing, Inversion, and Interpreta- tion of Seismic Data, by Öz Yilmaz Publications • Seismic Amplitude Interpretation, by Fred J. Hilterman Satinder Chopra, chairman • 3D Seismic Survey Design, by Gijs J. O. Vermeer

The Publications Committee is responsible for soliciting The Publications Committee also recommended the publi- and working with the SEG Publications staff to produce all cation of a Spanish translation of the Encyclopedic Dictionary publications other than GEOPHYSICS and THE LEADING EDGE. of Applied Geophysics, fourth edition, by Robert E. Sheriff. This The committee’s objective is to provide exploration geophysi- publication has been approved by the SEG Executive Com- cists with the technical geophysical information to keep cur- mittee, and work on this will begin soon. rent with ideas and techniques necessary in their jobs. This The Publications Committee consists of several dedicated report summarizes books recently published and those that are individuals who generously donate their time and effort. These to be published in the near future. committee members, along with editors, book authors, and Reference publications issued in fiscal year 2006 (July 1, the SEG Publications staff allow the publication process to 2005 to July 1, 2006): work efficiently. The series editors are: Cynthia Menant Berli- er, Slide Sets; Sergio Chávez-Pérez, Translations Committee • Introduction to Petroleum Seismology, by Luc T. Ikelle and chairman; Michael R. Cooper, Investigations in Geophysics; Lasse Amundsen Mike Pelissier, Geophysics Reprints; Lawrence M. Gochioco, • Multiple Attenuation, edited by Arthur B. Weglein and Continuing Education Course Notes; David Fitterman, Geo- 26 SEG 2006 Annual Report physical Monographs; Steve Hill, Geophysical Developments; committee was Biondo Biondi. The workshop was fully sub- and Gene Scherrer, Geophysical References. scribed. The RC sponsored a second workshop, “Hydrogeo- physics,” on July 31–August 2 in Vancouver, Canada. This Publications Policy workshop, chaired by Rosemary Knight, was also fully sub- Stephen J. Hill, chairman scribed. The RC is cosponsoring the joint SPG/SEG Workshop The SEG Publications Policy Board was created in 2006 to “Reservoir Geophysics: Data Acquisition, Processing and address a range of policy issues that fall outside the focus of any Interpretation in Mature Oil Provinces,” October 27–29, of the current SEG publications-related committees or involve 2006, in Kunming, China. more than one such committee. It focuses on strategic issues For this year’s Annual Meeting postconvention workshops, such as member publications benefits, intersociety publishing the committee picked five topics during our January meeting: initiatives, publication pricing policies, and questions of com- They are: mercialism and conflicts of interest in publications. The board recommends action to the Executive Committee as necessary. • Modern acoustic logs: What are we measuring? The Publications Policy Board consists of eight members. • Integration of seismic and electromagnetic measurements Four members are automatic appointments: 1) chairman of • Stress effects on velocities the TLE Editorial Board (Ali Tura); 2) chairman of the SEG • The value of borehole seismic to reservoir characterization Online Committee (Susan Mastoris Peebler); 3) chairman of • Geophysics of heavy oil the Publications Committee (Satinder Chopra); and 4) chair- man of the Translations Committee (Sergio Chávez-Pérez). A The new modeling initiative started by the modeling sub- fifth member is one of the assistant editors of GEOPHYSICS (this committee, SEG Advanced Modeling Program (SEAM), is on year it is Johan Robertsson) selected annually by the editor schedule to start later in the year. We will operate this as a (Yonghe Sun). The president has appointed the other three whollyowned subsidiary of SEG. We have a number of signed members (Joe Dellinger, Mike Schoenberger, and me) for contracts, and we are confident that we can reach our objective four-year terms, although initially the term lengths are for two, of having at least 15 members. three, and four years in length so that no two “at-large” mem- EAGE will be hosting the joint SEG/EAGE Summer bers leave service to the committee simultaneously. Research Workshop in 2007. Title, organizers, location, and The president selects one of these three “at-large” members date have yet to be determined. SEG will be hosting an addi- to serve as chairman for a two-year term within the member’s tional SRW. The title of the workshop will be “Noise.” Chris four-year term, and Terry Young selected me to serve as the Krohn, Necati Gulunay, and Shuki Ronen are the organizers. committee’s first chairman. The other two “at-large” members The location and date have not been determined. are eligible to ascend to chair during their four-year terms. The president shall have the option of extending the term of a chairman or an “at-large” member by one year at the time the Reviews extension would begin. The editor serves on the board in an David C. Bartel, chairman ex-officio capacity. At the time annual reports were due, the committee had The Reviews Committee had a change in leadership in not held its first meeting. It will meet at least once per year and November 2005. I want to thank Bill Green for his many years more often as necessary. of service as Reviews Committee chairman and am glad he is continuing as a reviewer and resource. We operate differently than most of the other SEG committees. We operate almost Research solely by e-mail to give notice of items for review and to col- Arthur C. H. Cheng, chairman lect finished reviews. The reviews are published in THE LEAD- ING EDGE and essentially give us a monthly presence to the The main focus of the Research Committee (RC) is the SEG membership. organization of the Summer Research Workshop, in coopera- The committee continued in its well-established form. tion with the EAGE Research Committee, and workshops at Besides technical books of interest to SEG members to keep the Annual Meeting. them current with the literature related to their professional In 2005, the SEG/EAGE Summer Research Workshop, activities, we also review books of general interest to geoscien- “Multicomponent Seismic Technology,” hosted by EAGE, tists. We are a global committee with members around the September 5–8 in Pau, France, was a very successful meeting. world, representing all aspects of the geophysics profession. The 2006 SEG/EAGE Summer Research Workshop, No matter the time zone, it seems that an e-mail indicating “Subsalt Exploration and Development: Imaging, Interpreta- new books available for review gets a swift response. tion and Drilling. What Have We Learned?” was held July For the reporting period (June 2005–May 2006), the visi- 10–13, in Snowbird, Utah. The chairman of the organizing ble effects of the committee’s work were as follows: 32 book SEG 2006 Annual Report 27 reviews appeared in print, by 14 authors from six countries. Of than the United States, a figure which is well aligned with the 32 reviews, four had opinions contributed by more than SEG’s membership because almost 59% of SEG’s members one reviewer. Submitted reviews appear very quickly in THE live outside the United States. Fifty of the 147 recipients LEADING EDGE, sometimes just the next month. We have had (34%) study in universities outside the United States, more a couple of months without the Reviews column, not owing to than twice the number in 2005–2006. This achievement is a lack of reviews available for publication, but because there is largely due to endowed scholarship donors who have relaxed so much information to pack into one issue. the restrictions on use of their funds, to our sponsored schol- Most of the books available for review come directly from arship donors, and to SEG members and general donors who publishers soliciting a review. Specific books are sometimes give to the SEG scholarship program. requested from publishers as well. The SEG Publications Department also furnishes a list of new publications as they are Sponsors. The cornerstone of our program is the generosity of released. The total number of books received (42) has gone our contributors, who include individuals, corporations, and down from the 63 books last year but is on par with SEG sections. Seventy percent ($190 600) of our scholarship 2003–2004 (49). funds are endowed, which provides much needed continuity I would like to thank Merrily Sanzalone of the SEG Publi- from year to year. The remaining $80 850 was from yearly cations Department for all her help in handling the logistical contributions and carry-overs from the previous year. side of the review process and for her efforts in obtaining review copies of new books. Thanks also to Dean Clark for the Sponsorship Number Amount quick transitions from e-mailed reviews to finished product in Individuals 40 $102 800 Corporations 71 92 200 THE LEADING EDGE. Finally, thanks to all the contributors to the Reviews column. Without them, the committee would not Individual/corporate 4 12 000 accomplish much. joint sponsorship Any member who would like further information or would SEG sections 16 28 600 like to participate is welcome to contact me via e-mail: DBar- Memorial scholarships 16 35 850 [email protected]. Total 147 $271 450 Our appreciation is extended to those individuals who con- Scholarship tribute personally as well as those who influence their corpora- Karen K. Dittert, chairman tions and SEG sections to continue to contribute generously to the scholarship program. The fiscal soundness of this program The scholarship program of SEG Foundation seeks to find is a reflection of the tremendous effort put forth by the Foun- and recognize the most qualified geophysics students within dation Trustee Associates in securing scholarship contribu- SEG’s collegiate community. Through scholarships, we are tions from a myriad of contributors. The committee looks for- rewarding academic achievements of students while providing ward to upcoming years as SEG and the SEG Foundation con- recognition for our Society, sponsors, and organizations. In tinue to increase the availability of scholarship funds through addition, we are able to honor, through memorial scholar- the Advancing Geophysics Today and Inspiring Geoscientists for ships, geophysicists who have been important in our lives. In Tomorrow program. 2006, the SEG Foundation awarded the largest scholarship Committee. The Scholarship Committee consists of eight total in SEG’s history, $271 450 to 147 outstanding candi- members who each serve for eight years. Every year, many dates whose interests cover all aspects of geophysics. hours are spent reviewing and assessing the applications of Scholars. The SEG Scholarship Committee met on March 31 numerous students in preparation for the committee’s annual to review and finalize selections more than 450 new applica- spring award meeting—an awesome task which must be com- tions and 77 renewal applications. After careful consideration pleted in a short period of time. In addition to selecting the of the applicants and the wishes of our sponsors, the commit- recipients, each committee member is assigned a group of tee approved 147 awards, with values ranging from $500 to scholarship students to monitor and mentor. This provides a $14 000. Most awards are for $1000 (48), $1500 (16), $2000 direct link for our students to SEG. (30), and $3000 (11). Many thanks to the members of the SEG Scholarship During recent years, it has become increasingly clear that Committee: Gokay Bozkurt, Alex D. Bridge, Steven L. Roche, the great challenge for the SEG scholarship program is to Martin Stupel, Wenjie Dong, Robert E. Van Nieuwenhuise, ensure that the number of global awards keeps pace with the and Catherine Thibault for their hard work and dedication. global nature of SEG membership. The 2006–2007 scholar- Brian Young, Katie Burk, and Peter Pangman from SEG have ship program made great strides toward achieving that objec- all become integral to the success of the scholarship program, tive. The 2006–2007 SEG scholars are citizens of 24 different and I am grateful for their efforts and expertise. In addition, I countries studying in 13 countries around the globe. Eighty- would like to thank the Foundation’s liaisons, Rod Cottrell four of the 147 recipients (57%) are citizens of countries other and Gary Servos, for their continued support of the program. 28 SEG 2006 Annual Report SEG Foundation Scholarship Sponsors for the 2005–2006 Academic Year AGIP $1000 KEGS - Phillip Hallof Memorial $1000 ARCO $2000 LaCoste, Lucien Memorial $10 000 Born Memorial, Ted $1000 Landmark Graphics $13 000 Butler, John R. $1000 Lockhart, Richard and Rolande $1000 ChevronTexaco E&P $2000 Mazza Memorial, Thomas $1000 Cordsen, Andreas $800 McBride Memorial, Barbara $2000 Dallas Geophysical Society $4000 McBurney Memorial, Charles G. $4000 Dallas Geophysical Society - Permian Basin Geophysical Society $2000 Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial $7000 Schlumberger $2000 Denver Geophysical Society $9000 SEG 75th Anniversary Scholarship - Excel Geophysical Services $1000 sponsored by Vicki Messer $5000 ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company $13 250 SEG Endowed Scholarship $1000 Forrest, Michael $2000 SEG Foundation $31 450 Geophysical Society of Alaska $1000 Shell E&P $2000 Geophysical Society of Houston $1000 Sheriff, Margaret S. $12 000 Geophysical Society of Houston - Sheriff, Robert E. $14 000 Carlton-Farren Award $5000 Smith, Charlie and Jean $16 000 Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City $2000 Thomsen/BP North America $2400 Geophysical Society of Tulsa $2000 Thomsen/BP United Kingdom $900 Gregg, Mark E. - Kiwi Energy Ltd. $1000 Veritas DGC $2000 Harrison, Jim and Ruth $2000 Ward, Shirley A. and Stanley H. $19 000 Hewitt, Jene and Marvin $1000 WesternGeco $5000 Hilterman, Fred $1000 WesternGeco - Carl Savit $5000 Hohmann Memorial, G. W. $4000 White Memorial, J. E. $850 Hron Memorial, Frantisek $2000 Worthing, David - SEG $20 000 Jack, Ian - BP Amoco Scholarship $5000 Wrolstad Memorial, Keith $1000 KEGS Ontario $1000

SEG Foundation Scholarship Recipients for the 2005–2006 Academic Year Name University Award Ludmila Adam Colorado School of Mines David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Oluwatosin Caleb Akinpelu University of Toronto GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship Chelsea Allison Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship Mehmet Serkan Arca University of Arizona ChevronTexaco E&P Scholarship Joaquin Aristimuno Carleton College SEG Foundation General Scholarship Oladotun Awosemo Obafemi Awolowo University Landmark Graphics Scholarship Reeshidev Bansal University of Texas at Austin Dallas Geophysical Society Scholarship Banks Beasley Colorado School of Mines Mark E. Gregg/Kiwi Energy Ltd. Scholarship Jyoti Behura Colorado School of Mines SEG 75th Anniversary Scholarship, sponsored by Vicki Messer Mario Bencomo University of Texas at El Paso SEG Foundation General Scholarship Edward Bertrand University of Alberta Frantisek Hron Memorial Scholarship Nedra Bonal Alexander University of Texas at Austin SEG Foundation General Scholarship Shamik Bose University of Oklahoma Aubra Tilley Scholarship Hoa Quang Bui Texas A&M University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship Benjamin Byerly University of Oregon Keith Wrolstad Memorial Scholarship Katrina Byerly University of South Carolina ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Scholarship Xiling Cai China University of Geosciences SEG Foundation General Scholarship Jun Cao University of California, Santa Cruz WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori Award Nicholas (Seth) Carpenter Oregon State University Veritas DGC Scholarship John Ceron University of South Carolina Geophysical Society of Houston Scholarship Geoffrey Chambers Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship Hui Chang University of Texas at Dallas Geophysical Society of Oklahoma City Scholarship Shuang-quan Chen China University of Petroleum, Beijing WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori Award Kevin Christie University of Wisconsin-Madison Ted Born Memorial Scholarship Margarita Corzo Heriot-Watt University Ian Jack/BP Amoco Scholarship Tiffany Cox Carleton College SEG Foundation General Scholarship Milos Dragan Cvetkovic University of Houston Thomsen/BP North America Scholarship Aaron Davis Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology SEG Foundation General Scholarship (RMIT University) Amy Day-Lewis Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship Eric Dew University of Louisiana, Lafayette Thomas Mazza Memorial Scholarship Jicai Ding Institute of Geology and Geophysics, SEG Foundation General Scholarship Chinese Academy of Sciences Brianne Douthit Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society Scholarship SEG 2006 Annual Report 29 Name University Award Ben Drenth University of Texas at El Paso Landmark Graphics Scholarship Xiang Du University of Calgary SEG Foundation General Scholarship Inmaculada Dura-Gomez University of South Carolina WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori Award Jeff Durand University of Alberta ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Scholarship Lauren Edgar Dartmouth College David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Paul Edigbue Federal University of Technology, Akure AGIP Scholarship Amobi Ekwe University of Nigeria Veritas DGC Scholarship Robert Eslick University of Kansas ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Scholarship Robert Eso University of British Columbia Shirley A. and Stanley H. Ward Scholarship John Evangelatos University of New Brunswick SEG Foundation General Scholarship Belinda Ferrero-Marine University of Oklahoma Charles G. McBurney Memorial Scholarship Melvin Fillerup University of South Carolina David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Antje Franke Technische Universität of Hohmann Memorial Scholarship Bergakademie Freiberg Shelby Frost Winona State University SEG Foundation General Scholarship Jourdan Fuhrmann Colorado State University WesternGeco Scholarship Toshiko Furukawa University of Utah David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Bonnie Gillan University of Montana SEG Foundation General Scholarship Carmen Gomez Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship Cory Grady Colorado School of Mines Fred Hilterman Scholarship Derek Grimm Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society Scholarship Lianghui Guo China University of Geosciences SEG Foundation General Scholarship Nathan Hancock Colorado School of Mines Shirley A. and Stanley H. Ward Scholarship Benjamin Haugen University of Colorado Denver Geophysical Society Scholarship Tyler Hayes University of Western Ontario Lucien LaCoste Scholarship Desmond Heyliger IV University of Central Arkansas SEG Foundation General Scholarship Andrew Hinnell University of Arizona ARCO Scholarship Emily Hinz University of Texas at Dallas Gary Garner Memorial Scholarship Neil Hodgson Heriot-Watt University Thomsen/BP United Kingdom Chad Hogan University of Calgary SEG Foundation General Scholarship R. Chadwick Holmes Columbia University SEG Foundation General Scholarship Shuo Hou University of Texas at Austin SEG Foundation General Scholarship Shari Houston New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Scholarship Jerad Hughes Colorado School of Mines Landmark Graphics Scholarship Diana Husmann Massachusetts Institute of Technology ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Scholarship Aleksandar Jeremic University of Houston Landmark Graphics Scholarship Bai Jie Uppsala University SEG Foundation General Scholarship Merrick Johnston Dartmouth College Geophysical Society of Alaska Scholarship Sayed Hesammoddin Kazemeini Uppsala University SEG Foundation General Scholarship Danil Knyazev Institut Français du Pétrole ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Scholarship John Korbin New Mexico Tech L. Decker Dawson and C. Newton Page/ Permian Basin Geophysical Society Scholarship Ashley Krakowka University of Manitoba SEG Endowed Scholarship Nicholas Kunstek Montana Tech Landmark Graphics Scholarship Muhammed Kurniawan Institut Teknologi Bandung Richard and Rolande Lockharte Scholarship Grant Lethbridge Memorial University of Newfoundland David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Xinfu Li Institute of Geology and Geophysics, SEG Foundation General Scholarship Chinese Academy of Sciences Yandong Li Tsinghua University SEG Foundation General Scholarship Arianna Lisi University of Houston DGS/Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial Scholarship Guofeng Liu China University of Geosciences WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori Award Andrew Lynch University of Kentucky SEG Foundation General Scholarship Wentao Ma China University of Geosciences WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori Award Christian Marine University of Oklahoma Aubra Tilley Scholarship Virginie Maris University of Utah Shirley A. and Stanley H. Ward Scholarship Milena Marjanovic University of Belgrade WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori Award Stephanie Mason University of Rochester Excel Geophysical Services Scholarship David McCowan Ohio University David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Alison Meininger Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society Scholarship Daniel Merchant Montana Tech G. W. Hohmann Memorial Scholarship Thomas Mikesell Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society Scholarship Brandon Milliard University of Montana David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Li Minfeng China University of Geosciences David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Soo-Kyung Miong University of British Columbia SEG Foundation General Scholarship Peyman Moghaddam University of British Columbia Michael Forrest Scholarship Christopher Monk Texas A&M University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship 30 SEG 2006 Annual Report Name University Award Dana Mucuta University of South Carolina WesternGeco/Carl Savit Award Scott Robin Napier University of British Columbia Shirley A. and Stanley H. Ward Scholarship Stephen Nei Loyola University Chicago WesternGeco Scholarship Thang Nguyen University of Houston Margaret S. Sheriff Scholarship Marcela Novo Pontificia Universidade Catolica SEG Foundation General Scholarship do Rio de Janeiro Caroline O'Hara University of Texas at Austin DGS/Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial Scholarship Gonca Okay Dalhousie University Jene and Marvin Hewitt Scholarship Meshach Omudu University of Port Harcourt SEG Foundation General Scholarship Margarita Pavlova University of Sydney ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Scholarship Gabriel Perez University of Houston Geophysical Society of Houston Scholarship Adetokunbo Peter Federal University of Technology, Akure David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Nurfiana Rachmawati Gadjah Mada University Michael Forrest Scholarship Joshua Richardson Michigan Technological University Schlumberger Scholarship Catherine Robin University of Toronto SEG Foundation General Scholarship Norelis Rodriguez University of Oklahoma Aubra Tilley Scholarship Joseph Romani Colorado School of Mines Denver Geophysical Society Scholarship Stephen Rose Washington State University WesternGeco Scholarship Eva-Maria Rumpfhuber University of Texas at El Paso Dallas Geophysical Society Scholarship Sergey Samsonov University of Western Ontario SEG Foundation General Scholarship Rafael Sanguinetti University of Houston SEG Foundation General Scholarship Wasiu Sanni Polytechnic Ibadan Jene and Marvin Hewitt Scholarship Kathryn Sechrist University of Georgia David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Kim Senger University of Otago Shell E&P Scholarship Susumu Shibata Oklahoma State University Geophysical Society of Tulsa Scholarship Jeffrey Shoffner University of Nevada-Reno SEG Foundation General Scholarship Jeffrey Shragge Stanford University GSH/Charlie and Jean Smith Scholarship Nicole Siegel Lynchburg College SEG Foundation General Scholarship Janae Singer Montana Tech WesternGeco Scholarship Steven Sloan University of Kansas Andreas Cordsen Scholarship Sandor Sule University of Saskatchewan SEG Foundation General Scholarship Andrei Swidinsky University of Toronto KEGS/Phillip Hallof Memorial Scholarship Tiffany Tchakirides Cornell University Barbara McBride Memorial Scholarship Erin Michelle Temple University of Colorado Landmark Graphics Scholarship Mayo Thompson Colorado School of Mines David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Upendra Tiwari University of Texas at Dallas DGS/Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial Scholarship Dileep Tiwary University of Oklahoma Charles G. McBurney Memorial Scholarship Azor Ude University of Nigeria AGIP Scholarship Charles Ugbor University of Nigeria SEG Foundation General Scholarship Ahamefula Utom Ebonyi State University Abakaliki ChevronTexaco E&P Scholarship Bryce Wagner III University of Texas at Austin ExxonMobil Upstream Research Company Scholarship Kathryn Watts Louisiana State University Landmark Graphics Scholarship Cy Webster Montana Tech David Worthington/SEG Scholarship Karen Weitemeyer University of California, San Diego Landmark Graphics Scholarship David Wilson Colorado School of Mines Jim and Ruth Harrison Scholarship Anne Wintzer Yale University SEG Foundation General Scholarship Xiaoxia Xu Colorado School of Mines WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori Award Shu Kwan Yeung Colorado School of Mines L. Decker Dawson and C. Newton Page/ Permian Basin Geophysical Society Scholarship Jianghua Yuan Graduate School of the Chinese Academy Richard and Rolande Lockharte Scholarship of Sciences John Zhang University of Calgary Schlumberger Scholarship Rui Zhang University of Houston GSH/Robert E. Sheriff Scholarship Yingsong Zhang Tsinghua University WesternGeco/Henry Salvatori Award Bo Zhao University of Houston DGS/Karen Kellogg Shaw Memorial Scholarship SEG 2006 Annual Report 31 physical quiz contest for the student sections. The students Student Sections/Academic Liaison have reacted very positively to this concept, and we are in the Kathleen J. Aikin, chairman process of implementing such a program—hopefully with a pilot program at the SEG Annual Meeting in New Orleans. Matthias G. Imhof, vice chairman In 2005–2006, the Student Section/Academic Liaison Technical Standards Committee (SS/ALC) was actively involved in a number of Ted Mariner, chairman new initiatives, as well as continuing to grow our student sec- tion population. We have continued to encourage cooperation A progress review of the SEG-D and SPS format revisions between the sections via sister sections, and we enhanced the was held at the SEG Technical Standards Committee meeting Anomaly by encouraging students and SEG members to con- at the 75th Anniversary SEG Annual Meeting in Houston. A tribute articles. significant effort had been made by all the contributors during Our new SEG committee liaison, Jenny Cole, has been a 2005–2006, and the SEG-D Revision 2.1 and associated SPS wonderful addition to the committee, working tirelessly with Revision 2.1 formats are now completed and posted on the the students and the committee in our endeavors. One of her SEG Web site. Thanks to all the companies who have con- greatest achievements of the year was the hugely successful tributed to this effort either by permitting staff to spend time Student Reception at the 2005 SEG Annual Meeting. The or by contributing financially via contract resources and use of theme was “Don’t Gamble on Your Professionalism” (mock facilities. casino tables were set up for students and guests). The event Jill Lewis of Troika International, who has been one of the was so successful that the students have overwhelmingly driving forces behind this format revision, took on the role of requested the same form of entertainment for this year’s recep- deputy chairperson of the SEG Technical Standards Commit- tion in New Orleans. tee. We continued our coordination and support of the Previously at the Denver meeting Mike Norris raised the SEG/AAPG Student Expo in Houston. This year’s event will topic of marine electromagnetic profiling and the need for an include field trips and a special day-long workshop hosted by exchange format for the data. During the year, it would appear Schlumberger. SS/ALC Chairman Kay Aikin has become that the industry had adopted SEG-Y as the de-facto standard; more involved in the Student Expo Committee and looks for- however, those attending the Houston meeting felt that it ward to serving on the committee for the next few years. should perhaps be renamed to avoid future confusion. This group is also active in organizing the career-planning In May, a initial meeting was held to continue the SEG-D workshops at both SEG and AAPG. Aikin and Cole attended revision process, the intent being to produce a SEG-D Revi- the AAPG career-planning workshop in April, and we look sion 3.0 which would address many of the issues of new acqui- forward to another successful workshop at the SEG in Octo- sition technologies. A meeting was held at EAGE in Vienna to ber. Cole also helped coordinate our second career-planning continue this process and was well attended. There were pre- workshop at the 2005 Annual Meeting. The event was well sentations on the SEG-D Revision 3.0 work to date from Jill attended by more than 100 students. The speakers were Walt Lewis and Rune Hagelund. Lynn, SEG past president; Mike Bahorich, SEG past presi- Electronic copies of the minutes of the meetings in Hous- dent; Thomas Dobecki, 2005 president of the Near-Surface ton and at the EAGE in Vienna and other SEG-D Revision Geophysics Section of SEG; and Marco Vignali, a recent grad- meetings can be obtained from the committee chairman. uate now working with Chesapeake Energy Corporation. We have increased our membership by 16 sections this year, up from 13 sections in 2004. We have 155 student sec- Tellers tions in 35 countries. Our quarterly newsletter, the Anomaly, Daniel J. Piazzola, chairman is our main avenue of communication with the student sec- tions, and we welcome contributions from all sources. Cole Survey & Ballot Systems, Inc. (SBS) was contracted to con- has done an excellent job generating the Anomaly every quar- duct the SEG election again this year. SBS designed and dis- ter, and the feedback has been very positive. tributed both an online Web ballot and a paper ballot to each Matthias Imhof continues to support the committee in his voting SEG member. All votes were received, tabulated, and role as vice chairman, providing guidance and assistance espe- verified by SBS and results were submitted to the SEG busi- cially through his roles on other committees. We are looking ness office. The SEG Tellers Committee verified the count forward to his leadership as chairman next year. Michael Deal provided by SBS. graciously volunteered as the SS/ALC representative on the Official paper ballots were mailed on June 15 to 7499 SEG Travel Grant Committee, and we are pleased to have him active members eligible to vote in this year’s election. In addi- represent us. tion to a paper ballot, 6862 members were also sent an e-mail Finally, this year we asked the Executive Committee if we from SBS with personalized login information and specific could pursue an idea presented by Peter Duncan for a geo- instructions on how to vote electronically. 32 SEG 2006 Annual Report The annual election had a participation rate of 31.3%. Forum has now been renamed the SEG Forum. The SEG 2354 ballots were received on or before July 31. Of those bal- Forum for 2006 Annual Meeting in New Orleans is being lots, 1513 were received via Web voting, and 841 paper ballots finalized. were returned by mail. A total of eight members duplicated The SEG Foundation has recently launched a Major Gifts votes by using both the paper and Web method of voting. Of Campaign. TLE is devoted to facilitating this activity so the the eight duplicate votes, only the Web votes were counted as SEG Foundation can reach its fund-raising goals. TLE will be valid, giving a total of 2346 valid ballots for this election. This publishing articles about the SEG Foundation program, allo- figure does not include 43 ballot envelopes that were deemed cating a special section, and may feature articles on some of the invalid; 36 members failed to sign their return envelope and donors. seven envelopes contained no ballot. The board is considering initiating a regular page in TLE The election results are as follows: that will give our members information on academic consortia and their activities. The board feels that this will be fruitful for 2006–2007 SEG Executive Committee both academic institutions and our members that may be President-elect Fred Aminzadeh interested in following up on the latest R&D developments in First vice president Roy E. Clark Jr. our industry. Second vice president James W. Rector The board is expecting several changes due to members Vice president Panos Kelamis completing their tenure. As usual, we attempt to strike a good Secretary-treasurer Brad Birkelo balance on the board in terms of industry and academic repre- Editor Yonghe Sun will complete his sentation, and also making sure that the board has the techni- two-year term as editor cal expertise in a wide range of geophysical topics. Satinder Chopra recently joined the TLE Editorial Board replacing District Representatives John Eastwood. Jeff Deere will be taking the place of Bill District #3 David W. Bell, Michael A. Celata, Dragoset, and Colin Sayers will be taking the place of Ali and Luc T. Ikelle Tura. Rebecca Latimer and Don Herron have agreed to serve District #5 Mike Hall an additional year on the TLE board to preserve continuity. I District #6 Paulo Johann personally thank Eastwood and Dragoset for their dedication District #8 Dieter Ramcke to TLE. The TLE board chairman for next year will be Don District #9 Samir Abdelmoaty Herron. It is my opinion that Herron’s significant experience District #11 Guo Yueliang with TLE and his leadership skills will ensure another success- ful year for TLE. A third dimension the board has been considering for THE LEADING EDGE Editorial Board future members is to establish a good mix of global represen- Ali Tura, chairman tation. In this direction we are looking at new board members outside of North America. The board agrees that this will in THE LEADING EDGE Editorial Board has continued dissem- particular benefit TLE special issues with a geographic region- ination of articles and information of interest to the SEG al focus and help in the desire for SEG to become a global soci- membership. TLE is still viewed as a top quality publication ety. Satinder Chopra has already demonstrated the value of that is highly valued by our members. having a global member on the board, and we are looking to The technical topics covered in TLE as special sections in have another global member to replace Don Herron when he 2005 and 2006 were: multiple attenuation, offshore technolo- completes his tenure. gy, carbonates, migration, rocks under stress, magnetic gra- Since the start, the success of TLE lies with its dedicated diometry, attenuation and spectral decomposition, gas Tulsa business office staff; those who are primarily working hydrates, hydrogeophysics, electromagnetics, reservoir surveil- with the board are: Dean Clark, Sylvie Dale, Jennifer Cobb, lance, CO2 sequestration, and geohazards. Regions that were Mel Buckner, Ian Danziger, Ted Bakamjian, Kathy Gamble, the focus of special sections in 2005 and 2006 were: West Merrily Sanzalone, Jim Lawnick, and Mary Fleming. For the Africa, Middle East, Caspian Sea, Latin America, India, and board and SEG business office it was a loss when one of our China. Additionally, the TLE Editorial Board and staff pro- most talented and experienced staff, Dolores Proubasta, duced a publication, that was applauded by the membership, resigned for personal reasons. SEG staff and leadership have in honor of SEG’s 75th anniversary. As customary, the edito- successfully handled this transition. rial board recommended the best paper in TLE for 2006 to the On the financial health of TLE, recent advertisement data Honors and Awards Committee. Given the quality of the tech- have shown that TLE is ahead of budget. Advertisement sales nical papers in TLE, this decision is usually a difficult task but increased by 5.5% in 2003–2004 and by 10% in 2004–2005. is also a highly enjoyed activity by the board. The October 2005 TLE had 68 paid ads, 10 more than the The SEG president and Annual Meeting chairman have previous high. The high quality of technical and business pub- now joined the editorial board chairman in organizing the lications in TLE has helped revenues in addition to the gener- kickoff forum at the Annual Meeting. As a result, the TLE al health of the industry and energy markets. SEG 2006 Annual Report 33 “the art of failure” (as Michael Burianyk (GAC’s Canadian Translations regional coordinator refers to the translation process). Sergio Chávez-Pérez, chairman There are still differences of opinion about how much we really need translations of SEG material into other languages, The Translations Committee has expanded the scope of its but the need keeps arising not only in books, but in TLE arti- work to include fostering translations of SEG books, like Robert cles and short course materials as well. Sheriff’s geophysical dictionary, to other languages. This became We recommended SEG endorsement for the Spanish edi- our main activity during the past year and has involved close tion of a book on archeological exploration methods, present- work with local societies to sponsor and/or maintain translations ed by José Carcione and a group of experts in Argentina. It will of these books. In particular, Altan Necioglu has almost finished be published in Argentina in 2006. translating Sheriff’s dictionary into Turkish. The Brazilian Geo- Finally, we confirmed our support for “bridge” publica- physical Society is very interested in doing the Portuguese trans- tions such as multilingual dictionaries. For instance, there is lation, and SEG will undertake to publish a Spanish translation dialog concerning SEG involvement with an English-French- itself. SEG’s Executive Committee recently approved publishing Russian dictionary on field geophysics, prepared by the State the Spanish translation. Federal Unitary Enterprise, All-Russian Research Institute of We had close contact with the Global Affairs Committee Exploration Geophysics, VNIIGeofizika, and Closed-Joint (GAC), and we intend to share our interest and struggle with Stock Company “Geodar.” Report of the Ad Hoc Committee Chairman

mends that SEG join the American Geophysical Union, eGY 2007-2008 European Geosciences Union, and the International Ralph W. Baird, chairman Union of Geodesy and Geophysics (IUGG) as host orga- nizations and offer a certificate of recognition to members The purpose of the ad hoc committee is to recommend to of the IGY Gold Club. To facilitate this recommendation, the SEG Executive Committee the role that SEG should play the committee requests that the president of SEG send a and how to participate in activities related to the 2007–2008 letter to the organizer of the IGY Gold Program request- Electronic Geophysical Year (eGY) and what activities to plan ing that SEG and SEG’s logo be added to the host organi- to honor the 50-year anniversary of the International Geo- zations. Additional follow-up and publicity will follow physical Year (IGY). The committee may plan the second through THE LEADING EDGE. SEG members can qualify International Geophysical Year (IGY-2) activities independent for a prestigious certificate of participation in the IGY. of those planned by eGY, International Polar Year (IPY), • In July 2007, create the eGY workshop to start off (kick- International Year of the Plant Earth (IYPE), and Internation- off) the 2007-2008 eGY. Consider this topic as a joint al Heliophysical Year (IHY). workshop proposal to the joint workshop committee. The central objective of an eGY is to bring the management • U.S. Postage Stamp commemorating the 50th Anniversary of geoscientific information worldwide into the 21st century of the IGY. The committee requests a letter from the pres- through an e-Science approach and the development of virtu- ident of SEG to the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizens’ Stamp al observatories. The challenge in 1957–1958 was to acquire Advisory Committee (CSAC) stating that SEG requests and make available to the world community the observational that the United States create such a stamp to be published data required to build a comprehensive understanding of the in 2008. earth and its processes. That challenge remains and is yet more • Create a technical session at the 2007 SEG Annual Meet- pressing because of the growing demands we place on our nat- ing titled “The Electronic Geophysical Year.” ural resources and environment. • Suggest that the theme or umbrella slogan of the 2007 The SEG Executive Committee passed the following resolu- and/or 2008 SEG Annual Meeting be named “Electronic tion: “SEG, noting the approach of the 50-year anniversary in Geophysical Year.” 2007 of the International Geophysical Year (IGY), which was • Associate the following existing SEG initiatives to be eGY outstandingly successful in advancing our knowledge of the earth initiatives/activities. The SEG.org Global Project, the Vir- and geospace through the provision of comprehensive geoscien- tual Geoscience Center, the Humanitarian Applications of tific observational data, noting the vast increase in observational Geophysics Initiative and the Numerical Modeling Con- data since the IGY, much of them available in near real-time, and sortium Initiative. the limitations on progress posed by the ever-growing problems • SEG to prepare a resolution endorsing data stewardship by of data storage, maintenance, and access, noting the unprece- creating a committee to establish guidelines for data stew- dented potential of modern information management method- ardship. The AAPG guidelines are recommended in lieu of ologies, based on the Internet, to overcome these limitations a new committee. through sharing of information, software, and hardware, and • Identify an event of great visibility for October 4, 2007, in supports the adoption of 2007 as the eGY—to be used as a focus commemoration of the successful launch of the Russian for providing ready access to geoscientific data and processing satellite Sputnik. Formalize an advertising campaign titled, capability using the electronic means now at our disposal.” “Where Will You Be on October 4, 2007?” to attract SEG Committee members are: Dave K. Agarwal, Ralph W. membership to this noteworthy event. Sputnik was actual- Baird, Arthur C. H. Cheng, David Forel, Tom K. Fulton, ly launched on October 5, Russian time. Robert A. Greenwald, Jack D. Hall, Gabriel Perez, Jeff M. • Establish a direct communication from SEG and eGY Rayner, Scott C. Sechrist, Brian R. Spies, and executive com- Education/Public Outreach (E/PO) to the American Geo- mittee member David J. Monk. logical Institute’s (AGI) E/PO group in Washington, D.C. The following are the recommendations to the SEG Exec- The E/PO programs should be coordinated and expanded utive Committee by the eGY 2007-2008 ad hoc committee: by combining the resources of selected geophysical and geological associations. • IGY Gold History Program. As a part of the International • Begin a notification process through the SEG Global Geophysical Year 50th anniversary, the committee recom- Affairs Committee to include announcements at local soci-

34 SEG 2006 Annual Report 35 ety meetings of the existence and purpose of the eGY and • Notify the SEG Exhibitors Committee that the 2007 and how SEG members shall benefit from eGY. All initiatives 2008 Annual Meetings shall have a booth or booths dedi- by United States’ associations are recommended to be cated to the activities of the eGY, IPY, IHY, and IYPE as duplicated by each international association/SEG affiliate. they relate to the IGY-2. Historical data shall be exhibited • The committee shall research and write a history of the about IGY 1957–1958. The committee shall invite repre- SEG and IGY to act as a documentation of the historical sentatives from the four groups to present materials at significance of participation by SEG members in the leg- this/these booth/booths. endary IGY. This manuscript shall be provided to the edi- tor of SEG’s primary journals. Reports of the Representatives

support the earth-science community in the United States AGI Government Affairs Program (described on its Web site, www.agiweb.org). Representatives Wayne D. Pennington, representative from the member societies oversee these activities. These rep- resentatives meet twice a year (usually in association with to the Advisory Committee meetings of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG) and the Geological Society of America (GSA). Special The American Geological Institute (AGI) is a society whose advisory committees, such as the Government Affairs Program members are other societies, not individuals. SEG is one of 43 and the Environmental Geoscience Program, oversee a few member societies in AGI, and our support of AGI is based on specific functions of AGI. (I serve as the SEG representative to our U.S.-based membership. A separate report is provided on the Member Society Council and the Government Affairs Pro- the overall activities of AGI. This report concentrates on its gram.) AGI is active in special areas, including outreach pro- Government Affairs Program. SEG supports AGI through its motion of Earth Science Week, curriculum guides for K-12, U.S.-based membership and influences its Government Affairs the Image Bank (an online collection of earth-science photos), Program through its representation on the Advisory Commit- operation of GeoRef (the electronic database of publication ref- tee for this program. See www.agiweb.org/gap/, where there erences), and government affairs (see separate report). is a huge amount of information. If you are interested in find- In many ways, AGI complements activities conducted ing out more about earth sciences in the United States and within some of its member societies, including SEG. Some government policy relating to them, browse this site in detail. issues of major concern to many of AGI’s member societies, AGI promotes lobbying, in the sense of educating govern- forming the basis of discussion among the societies’ represen- ment officials about the science and application of knowledge tatives, include the “open-access” policy of publication being in public planning. SEG itself does not “lobby” or take posi- encouraged by several funding agencies; the apparent redun- tion statements on political issues, but AGI provides education dancy (and the inefficiencies caused by that redundancy) of to lawmakers and promotes the use of sound science in public many functions of some of the member societies; the threat of policy, and it does so actively. It publishes position statements funding cuts for research in all sciences, but particularly geo- and provides testimony to the United States Congress on sciences, in the United States; problems in science education issues of importance to the earth-science community. It has in the United States, at precollege and college levels; and chal- conducted a number of information sessions to which law- lenges associated with internationalization of many U.S.-based makers and their staff members (in Washington D.C.) are member societies. invited (and encouraged with free food); these have been remarkably successfully, partly due to uncanny timing for events of interest, such as hurricanes. API Central Committee for AGI maintains a close watch on the activities of the U.S. Telecommunications Congress and other branches of the federal government and issues alerts on topics that members may want to be informed Clifford H. Ray, representative of quickly (mostly legislative action). You can subscribe to these alerts, monthly reviews, and special updates as members This year I attended the fall meeting of the API Telecommu- of SEG by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. nications Committee meeting—October 4–5, 2005, in Wash- ington, D.C., and the spring meeting in Houston, Texas, on April 4–5, 2006. Several radio spectrum issues before the Feder- al Communications Commission (FCC) were reviewed at these AGI Member Society Council meetings. Items that may be of interest to SEG members are: Wayne D. Pennington, representative 1) The issue concerning the impact of communication tow- The American Geological Institute (AGI) is a society whose ers on migratory birds is still under review by the Com- members are other societies, not individuals. SEG is one of 43 mission to determine whether further action is warranted. member societies in AGI, and our support of AGI is based on 2) Last year’s report noted that API’s pleadings were success- our U.S.-based membership. In addition to publishing the ful in preventing FCC from adopting a proposal to allow monthly journal Geotimes, an excellent general-interest, earth- unlicensed operation in the band 3650-3700 MHz. How- science publication, AGI performs a number of functions to ever, in June 2005, eight parties filed Petitions for recon-

36 SEG 2006 Annual Report 37 sideration of FCC’s 3.6 GHz rules, some calling for exclu- eral years that prohibited the licensing of such new high- sive licensing through auctions. API, along with more than power systems in the 460-470 MHz band. FCC imposed the 150 other parties, filed an Opposition/Comments regard- freeze to allow time for the migration of medical telemetry ing the Petitions. API is opposing the use of auctions for users in this band to new spectrum that was allocated for this spectrum. Thus far, FCC has not begun issuing licens- their use. The freeze was lifted, as of December 31, 2005, es and has not responded to the Petitions or Opposi- and high-power operations are permitted on former low- tion/Comments. power “offset” channels in the 460-470 MHz band. 3) FCC adopted a Report and Order (Order) in October 2004 governing the operation of access broadband over The API Telecommunication Committee is assisted by a power-line (BPL) systems. Pursuant to the order, BPL sys- law firm in Washington, D.C., in its mission to support the oil tems will be subject to the existing radiated emission lim- and gas industry’s effective management and implementation its set forth in Part 15 of FCC’s rules for carrier current of telecommunication technologies, resources, regulatory, and systems used as unintentional radiators and some addi- legislative effects. Our membership on the committee provides tional emission restrictions in certain frequency bands and SEG an opportunity to be informed on current regulatory and geographic areas to protect the federal government and legislative matters that may affect the use of radio spectrum for certain other radio operations. An additional requirement geophysical purposes. As a nonvoting member, we have an instructs BPL operators to provide information to a data- opportunity to attend two meetings each year and hear speak- base manager within 30 days of initiating new service. In ers from both the FCC and industry. February 2005, API further filed a Petition for Reconsid- eration of the Order requesting, among other things, that prior notice of 30 days be made to the public for evalua- International Association of Oil and tion before any new or modified BPL deployments to safe- Gas Producers guard licensed radio operators in spectrum bands for Geodesy Working Group which interference could occur. Advocates for amateur radio operators have also raised interference concerns and Alan K. Faichney, representative have made various challenges to the BPL rules. FCC’s staff is actively working on this matter but has not indicated Background. In 2002, the then chairman of the SEG Tech- when it will give a response to the Petitions. nical Standards Committee was invited to serve as SEG’s rep- 4) The issue that pertains to a Notice of Proposed Rulemak- resentative on the European Petroleum Survey Group Geo- ing (NPRM), adopted by FCC on May 13, 2004, to allow desy Working Group, to assist with resolving technical and unlicensed devices to operate in unused broadcast TV legal incompatibilities of the two standards bodies. The spectrum is still under consideration before FCC. NPRM process was completed in 2004. In 2004, the Technical Stan- seeks to create two general categories of unlicensed broad- dards Committee recommended to the SEG Executive Com- band devices: (1) lower-power “personal/portable” unli- mittee that SEG adopt the EPSG database as the standard censed devices, such as wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) laptop methodology for describing coordinate reference systems and computer cards or wireless in-home local area networks; transformations between them. This was adopted, and the per- and (2) higher-power “fixed/access” unlicensed devices manent post of SEG’s liaison was confirmed by both bodies. that can provide commercial services, such as wireless In early 2005, by mutual agreement, EPSG members elect- broadband. Those operating in the first category would be ed to reform as the Survey and Positioning Committee (SPC) limited to 100 milliwatts, and those in the second catego- of the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers ry would be allowed to operate up to 1 watt. These unli- (OGP). The merger was approved by the OGP management censed-device reception areas are required to be separated committee at its January 2005 meeting, and by EPSG shortly from each TV broadcast metropolitan center by at least after. The Geodesy Working Group remains unchanged as a 134 kilometers. API has urged FCC to prohibit operations subcommittee of the SPC. The term “EPSG” is retained when in the 470-512 MHz band in all regions of the country. referring to the data set which is the group’s primary output. FCC has delayed moving forward with the matter. The U.S. Congress, however, may now take up this issue. Two The data set. The EPSG geodetic parameter data set is a separate but similar bills (spurred by Wi-Fi proponents) repository of parameters required to: were introduced in the Senate on February 17, 2006, that, if enacted, could require FCC to adopt rules allowing unli- • identify coordinates such that those coordinates describe censed operations on “white space” in certain parts of the position unambiguously. This is through a coordinate ref- broadcast spectrum bands. erence system (CRS) definition. 5) As a result of FCC’s proceeding to “reform” the land mobile • define transformations and conversions that allow coordi- bands below 512 MHz, many of the former low-power 12.5 nates to be changed from one CRS to another CRS. Trans- kHz “offset” channels are being made available for new high- formations and conversions are collectively called coordinate power operations. However, a “freeze” was in effect for sev- operations. 38 SEG 2006 Annual Report Through the past year revisions have continued to refine Technical Program Committee. This year’s SEG program sub- and extend the data set, which now stands at Version 6.10.2 committee consisted of Gene Sparkman, Ali Tura, Bill Bark- (from 6.7 last year). The data set is free to the public and is house, Dan Ebrom, Brian Hornby, Jorge Lopez, John Mac- downloadable as both a Microsoft Access database and as a set Donald, Guy Purnell, and Larry Scott. They were joined by of SQL scripts from http://www.epsg.org. Joe Reilly and Klaas Koster who will be cochairmen for the A Joint Industry Project (JIP) is in the process of being set 2007 subcommittee. Second, these people who have an official up by OGP to provide an online version of the database that responsibility in turn arm-twist other members into actually can be queried remotely. It is anticipated that this will be com- giving the papers upon which the suggested technical sessions plete in the next year. were predicated. Third, the local section of SEG, the Geo- physical Society of Houston, supplies volunteers who help staff the arrangements committee, which handles various necessary OTC Board of Directors chores for the meeting. For his leadership role with respect to Jack Caldwell this activity in the recent past, Roy Clark deserves special men- tion. Fourth, numerous unrecognized members do deeds of The 2006 Offshore Technology Conference was held May consequence, but of which there is no record. Fifth, the Soci- 1–4 at Reliant Center in Houston, Texas. The theme for this ety provides a member on the Board of Directors, and the year’s conference was “New Depths, New Horizons.” Total board works hard to keep the OTC on its mission, and, in fact, attendance was 59 236, the highest number since 1982. The trying to improve on its performance of its mission. number of companies exhibiting at the conference was 2229, This past year, OTC made a $100 000 donation to the representing 30 countries. There were 246 first-time American Red Cross for the Katrina relief effort. The OTC exhibitors. The exhibits covered more than 470 000 square Board has initiated activity to determine what might be feet, and there continues to be a waiting list of exhibitors, even OTC’s role in the development of young professionals within as more space was opened up this year through the use of two the industry, and in the encouragement and creation of inter- air-conditioned outdoor pavilions. est by students in grades 8–12 in the earth sciences in general, SEG is a sponsoring organization of the Offshore Technol- and the energy industry, in particular. A program for young ogy Conference. The relationship dates to 1969 when SEG professionals “The Next Wave” was held on May 4. The accepted an invitation to join with AIME and seven other reviews of the program were quite good, but a complaint was engineering and scientific societies to establish OTC as an that it was hanging out there after basically everything else was interdisciplinary meeting on technology related to offshore being shut down. It was concluded by the board that this effort resources. As a sponsoring organization, SEG is entitled to was a good start, but a program to involve the young profes- appoint one of the 13 members to the OTC Board of Direc- sionals throughout the entire conference is needed. I made an tors. To provide an idea of how interdisciplinary the OTC is, introductory presentation about OTC for the first time since I a list of the other 11 sponsoring organizations follows: AAPG; joined the Board of Directors to the Executive Committee American Institute of Chemical Engineers; American Institute during its meeting at the Annual Meeting, and by the number of Mining, Metallurgical, and Petroleum Engineers; American of questions I received, I need to make better, if not more fre- Society of Civil Engineers; Institute of Electrical and Elec- quent, presentations to the Executive Committee. tronics Engineers—Oceanic Engineering Society; Internation- Please read Gene Sparkman’s report to find out about the al Petroleum Technology Institute (formerly ASME-PD); Technical Program at the 2006 OTC. The 2007 OTC will be Marine Technology Society; Society for Mining, Metallurgy, held at Reliant Center in Houston, April 30–May 3, and its and Exploration Inc.; Society of Naval Architects and Marine theme is “Transforming the Industry.” As your representative Engineers; Society of Petroleum Engineers; and The Minerals, on the OTC Board of Directors, I welcome any comments, Metals and Materials Society. suggestions, and/or critiques (positive or negative) that you SEG and its members accrue several benefits through par- may have. My e-mail address is [email protected]. ticipation in the Offshore Technology Conference. First, it is a place where one can broaden her/his view of the technology and technical advances that are required to make the oil and OTC Technical Program gas industry what it is. Second, besides the big-time hardware Gene W. Sparkman, chairman that’s on view, and being discussed in technical sessions, there are reservoir engineering technical sessions that are without Since its inception in 1969 the Offshore Technology Con- question relevant to what most geoscientists are working on ference has been an example of multiple professional societies today. Third, the geoscience sessions have been technically working together to organize a multiple disciplinary exhibition strong for years. Fourth, as with almost any well-attended and technical program. This year’s conference was sponsored industry meeting, it’s a good place to network. Fifth, this by 12 professional organizations and two other organizations. meeting provides about 5% of SEG’s annual income. A 24-year high 59 236 attendees were able to view an exhibit On the flip side, SEG and its members help make OTC the that included 2229 companies from more than 30 countries. success that it is. First there are the members who work on the Companies use this exhibition to introduce new technologies. SEG 2006 Annual Report 39 Arnis Judzis, this year’s OTC chairman, noted that “offshore development, involvement in industry associations, and entre- professionals got the opportunity to learn from the best minds preneurial skills. We understand from some attendees that in the world at the technical conference.” The technical pro- there was a good response for this special program, and it gram consisted of more than 300 technical presentations at 53 should be continued next year. technical and panel sessions. The SEG program subcommittee will continue to seek to The SEG technical program subcommittee was responsible offer results about new technology advancements that will help for four of the technical sessions. These included: our members become better professionals. We also intend to collaborate with our sister societies for topics that will foster • Since time-lapse seismic (4D) continues to be of interest, understanding of how we can work more closely together to SEG organized a session with worldwide monitoring case improve the recovery of hydrocarbons from our offshore oper- studies from major oil companies. This session included ations. studies from West Africa, offshore Norway, Gulf of Mexi- This year’s SEG program subcommittee consisted of Gene co, and offshore Brazil. This hot topic for the past 10 years Sparkman, Ali Tura, Bill Barkhouse, Dan Ebrom, Brian is showing positive results, and companies are starting to Hornby, Jorge Lopez, John MacDonald, Guy Purnell, and share some of their lessons learned. Larry Scott. They were joined by Joe Reilly and Klaas Koster • An SEG-sponsored session gave insights into some of the who will be leading the 2007 subcommittee. latest “Applications of VSPs to Imaging, Anisotropy, and Pressure Prediction.” This session covered improved sub- salt imaging, subsalt elastic velocity prediction, pore pres- OTC Arrangements sure predictions, subsalt velocity estimates using “virtual” Roy E. Clark Jr. check shots, and anisotropy estimation and evaluation. • An example of how one ocean bottom survey using node The 2006 OTC was held in Houston, Texas, the week of technology was carried out was presented in a full session May 1–4, 2006. The Arrangements Committee was the respon- that described the process from “definition to execution” sibility of the AIChE. Our group of volunteers assisted AAPG, at the Atlantis Field in the Gulf of Mexico. which was assigned the Student Tour Committee. I cochaired • Another SEG-sponsored session presented some of the lat- with Claudia Ludwig (AAPG). This was the first time for most est technologies in four papers on controlled-source elec- of our group to lead these tours, and it was an amazing experi- tromagnetic (CSEM). This session was supplemented with ence. two papers on resistivity imaging. The Offshore Technology Conference Career Guidance (Student Tour) Committee is responsible for arranging and Sessions of interest to our members included “The Gulf of conducting tours of the OTC technical exhibition for Hous- Mexico Under Siege: The Effects of Hurricanes Katrina and ton-area high-school students. The purpose of the program is Rita,” “Future of the Gulf of Mexico after Katrina and Rita,” to provide an overview of offshore technology to students with “Decision Making, Ethics, and Professionalism,” “Exploration high interest and aptitude in math and science. The program and Marine Geoscience,” and “Highlights of the Integrated seeks to encourage students to consider college and career Ocean Drilling Program.” opportunities in science and engineering. Being a multidisciplinary conference, the OTC presented We had nearly 200 high-school junior and senior students opportunities to expand our business knowledge. Panel ses- in this year’s program. They came from public, private, and sions included: even home-school programs. I recommend anyone living in Houston with high-school age (or even college-age) children to • “Independent Spirits Driving Offshore Industry” take them for a day and tour the exhibition. described the increased role that independents are playing Next year is an off year for both SEG and AAPG, though in addressing the growing worldwide energy demand. our volunteers will be assisting other societies on both the • “Reflections on an Industry in Change—Past, Present, and Arrangements and Student Tour committees. SEG takes over Future” described challenges the offshore oil and gas the Arrangements Committee again in 2008. industry is facing in the new millennium. • “Changing Dynamics of Deepwater Ownership” described how the number of companies play the ultra-deepwater OTC Young Professionals Event frontier. There has always been a steep learning curve for Sverre Brandsberg-Dahl deepwater technologies but the growing experiences has reduced the risks for new players’ venture into the play The “Next Wave,” a program for young professionals, was both in operator and nonoperator roles. held at the 2006 OTC in Houston. This, the first “Next Wave,” is especially designed for young professionals (35 and Of special interest to our members in the “under 35 age under), as well as all interested in meeting and interacting with group” was a special session on “The Next Wave, A program the next wave of the offshore industry. The main themes for young professionals.” It focused on leadership, career focused on leadership, career development, entrepreneurial 40 SEG 2006 Annual Report skills, and involvement in industry associations, like SEG. As The primary tasks of the OGRC are: described in the official OTC program: “The Next Wave” is a program designed to provide career insights for young profes- 1) significant revisions of the document titled “Petroleum sionals looking to expand and grow their role within the off- Resources and Reserves Classification, Definitions, and shore E&P industry.” Guidelines,” along with an accompanying Glossary, and, The program featured two panel sessions with industry 2) organizing and implementing an education program about leaders who shared success stories and provided advice on lead- the new guidelines. The main document is currently in its ership, career planning, and progression. Panelists were John fifth draft, having for the first time included remarks from a Gibson, CEO of Paradigm Geophysical; Joe Bryant, CEO of small group outside the OGRC. It is currently 38 pages long, Cobalt Energy; Blake Ducharme, president of Infinistar Oil- and the Glossary is 20 pages long. OGRC plans to complete field Services; Marisé Mikulis, Energy Industry manager for both documents for presentation to the SPE at the next Microsoft Corporation; Janeen Judah, general manager of annual meeting in September 2006. With SPE acceptance Reservoir and Production Engineering at Chevron; and Art and endorsement by SPEE, AAPG, and the World Petrole- Smith, chairman and CEO of J. S. Herold. The speakers um Council (WPC), these documents will become the stat- where each given 20 minutes to address preassigned parts of ed position of the SPE on reserves. the main theme. Each group of three was followed by a ques- tion and answer session. The audience was further involved SEG was not active in developing these documents until through an interactive polling system that provided real-time my appointment. There is virtually no geophysical content in answers from all audience members. Another geophysical these documents, except a reference to geophysical data in “highlight” was that Veritas DGC sponsored the refreshment determining hydrocarbon/water contacts, and another to seis- break. mic data being used in volumetric calculations. However, the The organizing committee had one representative from document does reference the 2001 Supplemental Guidelines, each of the member associations of OTC, very much like the which includes a significant discussion of seismic and geo- OTC Board itself. This being the first year for the program, physical applications by Jamie Robertson. To my knowledge, the Society for Petroleum Engineers staff played a pivotal role over the last year, the OGRC has concentrated on the above in getting the event prepared. two documents and has not been active in revising this 2001 Some organizations are further along than SEG when it document. My participation to date, therefore, has been to comes to programs for dedicated young professionals. Maybe learn, understand, and support the work of the OGRC, and to this event can help the Society become more active in this offer comments on the two documents. field. Would a dedicated e-mail list that could be used to The second part of the objectives of the OGRC is to develop inform our younger members of such events in the future be a and implement an education program on the new guidelines. A good starting point? Also, should SEG more actively promote subcommittee has targeted two groups as priorities: (1) profes- this event for next year? Maybe the Houston chapter is a nat- sional technical practitioners, who are reserves estimators, and (2) ural starting point? management of the technical groups, bankers, auditors, and oth- ers who must make decisions based on the reserves and other users of reserves information. It is possible, but unlikely, that I Society of Petroleum Engineers will be involved in this part of the activity. I did volunteer to help Oil and Gas Reserves with the dissemination of the information contained in the Matthew J. Milulich Guidelines to “other” groups such as the media, political interest groups, other economic groups, and universities, etc., but to date, In the spring of 2005, I was appointed SEG’s representative this last category is not a focus of the education committee. I was on the Oil and Gas Reserves Committee (OGRC) of the Soci- told that an AAPG group has been formed (or is being formed) ety of Petroleum Engineers (SPE). SPE had requested that to address this issue. My name was forwarded to them, but I have SEG provide a representative on the committee. There are not been in contact with anyone. about 20 active members including representatives from Admittedly, my input has been minimal having come so AAPG and the Society of Petroleum Evaluation Engineers late to the development of the documents. The OGRC is open (SPEE). The OGRC meets twice a year—in April (Dallas), to input from representatives like myself, and in fact, we are and in the fall at the SPE annual meeting. There is also “home- treated as committee members. OGRC members are commit- work”—reviewing and commenting on documents currently ted and dedicated to the objectives of the committee, and the under study and revision by the OGRC. I have attended two atmosphere of the meetings has been most professional and meetings: October 2005 and April 2006. In addition, I attend- intellectually stimulating. It has been a pleasure to meet these ed the Reserves Growth Conference at the USGS office in people and to work with them. Denver in October 2005. Financial Statements

SEG Foundation December 31, 2005 and 2004 (With Independent Auditors’ Report Thereon)

41 42 SEG 2006 Annual Report SEG 2006 Annual Report 43 44 SEG 2006 Annual Report SEG 2006 Annual Report 45 46 SEG 2006 Annual Report SEG 2006 Annual Report 47 48 SEG 2006 Annual Report SEG 2006 Annual Report 49 50 SEG 2006 Annual Report SEG 2006 Annual Report 51 52 SEG 2006 Annual Report

Society of Exploration Geophysicists June 30, 2006 and 2005 (With Independent Auditors’ Report Thereon) SEG 2006 Annual Report 53 SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Statements of Financial Position

June 30, 2006 and 2005

2006 2005 Assets

Current assets: Cash $ 2,089,557 1,667,175 Short-term investments 529,069 1,620,343 Accounts receivable, less allowance for doubtful accounts of $1,877 in 2006 and $4,898 in 2005 575,356 766,505 Inventories 587,124 442,314 Prepaid expenses 287,291 207,516 Accrue interest receivable 31,189 27,146 Total current assets 4,099,586 4,730,999

Investments 5,783,709 3,639,866

Property, furniture and equipment: Land 489,605 489,605 Building 8,060,750 7,996,124 Furniture, fixtures and equipment 916,786 821,719 9,467,141 9,307,448 Less accumulated depreciation 4,208,874 3,817,560 Net property, furniture and equipment 5,258,267 5,489,888

Other assets 2,793 2,793

$ 15,144,355 13,863,546

See accompanying notes to financial statements. 54 SEG 2006 Annual Report SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Statements of Financial Position (Continued)

June 30, 2006 and 2005

2006 2005

Liabilities and Net Assets

Current liabilities: Accounts payable and accrued liabilities $ 686,236 295,386 Current portion of capital lease obligation 33,517 33,517 Deferred revenue 2,950,895 3,188,206 Total current liabilities 3,670,651 3,517,109

Deferred revenue 51,306 14,850

Capital lease obligation 44,830 71,251

Total liabilities 3,766,787 3,603,210

Unrestricted net assets: Undesignated 11,246,571 10,144,336 Board designated 131,000 116,000 Total net assets 11,377,571 10,260,336

$ 15,144,355 13,863,546 SEG 2006 Annual Report 55 SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Statements of Activities

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

2006 2005

Revenues: Membership dues $ 1,167,969 1,077,375 Conferences and meetings 5,249,475 4,018,978 Publication sales and advertising 2,388,838 2,091,507 Professional Development 573,676 570,306 Investment income 472,024 375,686 Building lease operations 1,079,030 1,027,190 Other 47,008 216,832 Total revenues 10,978,020 9,377,874

Expenses: Membership record services 334,994 349,481 Conferences and meetings 2,441,314 2,075,025 Publications and advertising 2,483,073 2,293,817 Professional Development 805,132 868,104 General and administrative 2,306,927 1,991,844 Building lease operations 910,398 902,014 Special projects 26,497 29,511 Total expenses 9,308,335 8,509,796

Increase in net assets before contributions to Foundation 1,669,685 868,078

Contributions to Foundation (552,450) (412,739)

Increase in net assets 1,117,235 455,339

Unrestricted net assets, beginning of year 10,260,336 9,804,997

Unrestricted net assets, end of year $ 11,377,571 10,260,336

See accompanying notes to financial statements. 56 SEG 2006 Annual Report SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Statements of Cash Flows

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

2006 2005 Cash flows from operating activities: Increase (decrease) in net assets $ 1,117,235 455,339 Adjustments to reconcile increase (decrease) in net assets to net cash used by operating activities: Depreciation and amortization 391,314 378,029 Net realized/unrealized gain on investments (228,966) (188,893) (Increase) decrease in assets: Accounts receivable 191,151 (300,693) Inventories (144,810) 103,753 Prepaid expenses (79,777) 27,987 Accrued interest receivable (4,043) 1,073 Increase (decrease) in liabilities: Accounts payable and accrued liabilities 390,853 (75,455) Deferred revenue (200,858) 280,986 Net cash provided by operating activities 1,432,099 682,126

Cash flows from investing activities: Purchases of property, furniture and equipment (159,691) (304,545) Purchases of investments (2,192,605) (1,800,934) Proceeds from sale of investments 1,369,000 1,833,000 Net cash used in investing activities (983,296) (272,479)

Cash flows from financing activities – Principal payments on capital lease obligation (26,421) (24,483) Net cash used by financial activities (26,421) (24,483)

Net increase in cash 422,382 385,164 Cash, beginning of year 1,667,175 1,282,011 Cash, end of year $ 2,089,557 1,667,175

Cash paid for interest 7,096 9,034

See accompanying notes to financial statements. SEG 2006 Annual Report 57 SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

NOTE 1 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES

Nature of Operations The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (the “Society”), was organized in 1930 as a not-for-profit organization. The objectives of the Society are to promote the science of research, to foster the common scientific interests of geophysicists, and to maintain a high professional standing among its members. The Society accomplishes these objectives by publishing scientific literature, conducting professional development programs and technical meetings, and providing other informational services.

The accompanying financial statements include the financial position, results of activities and cash flows of the Society. These financial statements do not include the SEG Foundation (the “Foundation”), a separate not-for-profit organization which receives contributions for public education and other scientific purposes.

Cash and Cash Equivalents Cash and cash equivalents include cash in banks and all highly liquid investments with an original maturity of three months or less. Cash equivalents exclude money market funds held by a brokerage firm.

The Society maintains cash balances at several banks. Accounts at each institution are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation up to $100,000. At June 30, 2006, and 2005, the Society had deposits in excess of the federally insured limit.

Accounts Receivable Accounts receivable consists of uncollateralized billings for memberships, sponsorships, and exhibit space. Accounts receivable are stated at the amount billed. The carrying amount of accounts receivable is reduced by a valuation allowance that reflects management’s best estimate of amounts that will not be collected.

Inventories Inventories of publications for resale are valued at the lower of cost, determined by the moving-average method, or market.

Investments Investments consist of marketable debt and equity securities which are valued at their fair values in the statements of financial position. Fair values for investments are based on quoted market prices. Unrealized gains and losses are included in the statements of activities.

(continued) 58 SEG 2006 Annual Report SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

NOTE 1 – SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (CONTINUED)

Property, Furniture & Equipment Property, furniture and equipment are carried at cost. Depreciation is computed using the straight-line method based on the estimated useful lives of the assets. When assets are retired or otherwise disposed of, the cost and related accumulated depreciation are removed from the accounts, and any resulting gain or loss is included in the statement of activities. Expenditure for maintenance and repairs are charged to expense as incurred. Major improvements are capitalized. The lives used in computing depreciation are as follows: building – 50 years; furniture and equipment – 3 to 10 years.

Net Assets The Executive Committee of the Society has designated $131,000 of net assets for future building improvements as of June 30, 2006.

Income Taxes The Society is a not-for-profit organization under Section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code and is subject to income taxes on unrelated business income.

Transactions with Foundation The Society leases building space and provides administrative services to the Foundation. The Society did not charge the Foundation for rent and administrative services in 2006 or 2005. Contributions to the Foundation for these services were as follows:

2006 2005 Administrative services $ 233,874 193,778 Rent 92,375 98,187 Major gift campaign 226,201 60,774 Foundation projects - 60,000 $ 552,450 412,739

Accounts payable due to the Foundation was $38,912 at June 30, 2006 and accounts receivable due from the Foundation was $42,092 at June 30, 2005. The Society charged the Foundation $69,824 in 2006 and $32,633 in 2005 for reimbursement of personnel costs related to fundraising activities. Building lease operations revenue includes similar amounts for the in-kind rent contributions in 2006 and 2005. Other revenue includes a similar amount for the in-kind administrative services contribution in 2005. (continued) SEG 2006 Annual Report 59 SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

NOTE 1 - SUMMARY OF SIGNIFICANT ACCOUNTING POLICIES (CONTINUED)

Revenue Recognition Membership dues and publication subscription revenues are recognized ratably over the applicable membership or subscription period. Revenues relating to meetings are recognized as revenue at the time of the meeting.

Building Lease Operations The Society owns the land and building where its administrative offices are located in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Office space which is not used by the Society is leased to other companies.

Use of Estimates The preparation of financial statements in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during the reported period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

NOTE 2 – INVESTMENTS

At June 30, 2006 and 2005, investments were as follows:

2006 Cost Market Cash management fund $ 55,287 55,287 Certificate ofdeposit 1,341,000 1,370,216 Federal agency securities 350,000 337,641 Equity investments 2,251,437 3,329,128 Corporate bonds 1,213,437 1,220,506 $ 6,330,161 6,062,778 Less short-term investments 529,068 Long-term investments $ 5,533,710

(continued) 60 SEG 2006 Annual Report SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

NOTE 2 – INVESTMENTS (CONTINUED)

______2005______Cost Market Cash management fund $ 447,677 447,677 Certificate of deposit 915,000 903,159 Federal agency securities 100,000 99,563 Equity investments 1,776,437 2,465,709 Corporate bonds 1,295,437 1,344,101 $ 4,534,551 5,260,209 Less short-term investments 1,620,343 Long-term investments $ 3,639,866

The Fair valued of fixed income securities at June 30, 2006 by maturity, are shown below: Due in less than one year $ 473,782 Due after one year through five years 1,840,524 Due after five years through ten years 614,057 $ 2,928,363

Investment income in the accompanying statements of activities consists of the following:

2006 2005 Interest income $ 177,947 186,793 Gain on investments 228,966 188,893 $ 406,913 375,686

NOTE 3 – PENSION AND SALARY REDUCTION PLANS

The Society sponsors a defined contribution pension plan which does not allow employee contributions. The Society makes contributions to the Plan based upon 4.5% of the employees’ eligible wages.

The Society also sponsors a salary reduction plan. The Society’s contributions to this plan are computed based on 2% of salaries and a two-for-one matching contribution of employees’ contributions, up to a maximum of 4.33% of salaries.

The Society’s expense under these plans was $331,725 in 2006 and $288,764 in 2005. (continued) SEG 2006 Annual Report 61 SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

NOTE 3 – PENSION AND SALARY REDUCTION PLANS (CONTINUED)

Subsequent to June 30, 2006, the Society amended both benefit plans. As of August 1, 2006, the Society will continue to sponsor the defined contribution pension plan for persons employed as of July 31, 2006 until July 31, 2011. For employees hired August 1, 2006 and after, no defined contribution pension plan will be sponsored.

As of August 1, 2006, the Society will continue to sponsor the salary reduction plan for persons employed as of July 31, 2006 until July 31, 2011. For employees hired August 1, 2006 and after, and all employees after July 31, 2011, the Society’s contributions to this plan are computed based on 6% of salaries and a one-for-one matching contribution of employees’ contributions, up to a maximum of 3% of salaries.

NOTE 4 – LEASING ARRANGEMENTS

The Society leases approximately 75% of the office space in its headquarters building to unaffiliated parties under non-cancelable operating leases. The following is a schedule of minimum future rental revenues from those tenants as of June 30, 2006:

Year Ending June 30, Amount

2007 $ 875,746 2008 404,034 2009 182,508 2010 50,643 2011 5,546 $ 1,518,477

The Society leases phone equipment under a capital lease expiring January 2009. At the inception of the capital lease, the asset and liability under the capital lease are recorded at the lower of the present value of the minimum lease payments or the fair value of the asset. The asset is amortized over its estimated useful life. Phone equipment under the capital lease (which is included in furniture and equipment) was $71,772, net of accumulated depreciation of $67,142 at June 30, 2006. (continued) 62 SEG 2006 Annual Report SOCIETY OF EXPLORATION GEOPHYSICISTS

Notes to the Financial Statements

For the Years Ended June 30, 2006 and 2005

NOTE 4 – LEASING ARRANGEMENTS (CONTINUED)

Minimum future rental payments under capital lease are as follows:

Year Ending June 30, Amount

2007 $ 33,517 2008 33,517 2009 19,552 86,586 Less imputed interest (8,239) Present value of future minimum lease payments 78,347 Current portion 33,517 Long-term capital lease obligation $ 44,830

NOTE 5 – COMMITMENTS

The Society has pledged $1,000,000 to match contributions to the SEG Foundation campaign - Advancing geophysics today Inspiring geoscientists for tomorrow. Matching funds are for individual contributions received by December 31, 2011 for amounts of $5,000 up to $50,000.