FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

School of Mineral and Energy

Resources Engineering

Petroleum Geophysics
PTRL2114/5014/6014

T2, 2019 COURSE OUTLINE

1
CONTENTS
Contents....................................................................................................................................................... 2
1 Course contacts ................................................................................................................................... 2
2 Course Information .............................................................................................................................. 3
3 Course Evaluation And Continual Improvement .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
4 Course Contents .................................................................................................................................. 5
5 Assessment .......................................................................................................................................... 7
6 Resources and Supports for Students.................................................................................................. 9
7 STUDYING A UG COURSE IN UNSW MINERALS AND ENERGY RESOURCES ENGINEERING ................. 9

1 COURSE CONTACTS
1.1 COURSE STAFF
Course Convenor Dr Stuart Clark

Preferred Contact Method Moodle Q&A Forums

Contact Email [email protected]

Consultation By Appointment

Consultation types In person (TETB 214)

Skype

1.2 HOW WE CONTACT YOU: MOODLE ANNOUNCEMENTS

At times, the School or your course convenors may need to contact you about your course or
your enrolment. I will typically use the course announcement forums. Make sure you subscribe
and set your email forwarding up!
See https://www.it.unsw.edu.au/students/email/index.html for details/

1.3 HOW YOU CAN CONTACT US

Please ask the majority of your questions using the online forums for each topic or the general course
one. You may get your answers faster that way than email and my answers will inform the whole class.
If you really need to discuss something one-on-one with me, then please organise an appointment over
skype or in person in my office.

For administrative questions, you will need to log a request online before contacting me.
2 COURSE INFORMATION

2.1 COURSE DETAILS (IN PERSON)

Lecture (2114/5014) Weeks 1-10 Wednesdays 9am – 11am Quadrangle G034 (K-
E15-G034)

Tutorial (2114) Weeks 1-10 Thursdays 1pm-2pm Goldstein G02 (K-D16-

G02)

Tutorial (5014) Weeks 1-10 Thursday 11am – 12pm Goldstein G02 (K-D16-
G02)

Tutorial (6014) Week 1, 3, 5, 7, Thursdays 2pm – 2:30pm Blackboard via

9 Moodle

2.2 COURSE SUMMARY

In this course, you will engage in activities that align with what would be expected of petroleum
geophysicist in industry. The topics covered take students from introductory seismology and potential
field geophysics to advanced concepts in seismic attributes and inversion. A number of the concepts
are taught using a programming language without requiring prerequisite knowledge: as a result you will
also gain programming skills, which are of growing demand in industry. Finally, the course will focus on
communicating geophysical methods and results to an interdisciplinary audience.

2.3 COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES (CLOS)

The course focuses on the impact of the sedimentary environment, burial history and
associated diagenesis on source rock potential, maturation and migration. By successfully
completing this course, you should:
1. Formulate an interpretation of reservoir potential using seismic techniques.
(CLO1)
2. Recall and discuss the relationship of seismic reflection techniques and related
image processing methods to seismic interpretation. (CLO2)
3. Implement seismic reflection processing techniques as computer algorithms.
(CLO3)
4. Demonstrate strong oral and written communication skills through clear
explanations of geophysical concepts appropriate for an interdisciplinary industry
audience. (CLO4)

2.4 TEACHING STRATEGIES

The course uses the following main strategies:

• Just-in-time teaching based on real-time feedback from students

• Active learning - via online activities and quizzes
• Problem- and Team-based learning with take-home assignments encouraging industry-related
thinking.
• Case studies looking at the use of techniques in real industry cases and the outcomes and
benefits.
The teaching approach is a blended learning environment, with reading material, assignments and
quizzes to be completed online. In classes, we will employ a flipped classroom strategy, where problem
and team-based learning take the bulk of the teaching time, aimed at reinforcing the online theoretical
material through practical discussions and work.

2.5 WEEKLY TASKS

See the Moodle page for deadlines. As a guide, each week, you will need to spend several hours outside
of class completing one or more of the following tasks:

• Weekly readings
• Learning activities such as watching course videos
• Practice online quizzes
• Glossary entries

2.6 IMPORTANT THINGS TO REMEMBER

• It is essential to have a laptop or tablet for each class. In some cases, a phone may work, but
may not be compatible with all the class activities.
• Switch on notifications for Moodle and/or check Moodle regularly
• Ask questions in the forums online

2.7 SUGGESTED APPROACHES TO LEARNING

As a guide, 1 UOC equates to approximately 25 hours of work per semester, including lectures, tutorials
and private study. This course is worth 6 UOC, corresponding to 150 hours of work or about 12 hours per
week. Lectures and class meetings take 3 hours per week, leaving 9 hours per week for individual reading,
research and working on problems. In periods where you need to complete assignments or prepare for
examinations, the workload may be greater. You should take the required workload into account when
planning how to balance study with employment and other activities.

2.8 ATTENDANCE
For in-person students, attendance of all classes is mandatory because team-based learning exercises
are graded each week. Failure to attend will result in a mark of 0. Normally, there is no make-up work
for poor attendance. If you have misadventure or ill-health, please speak with me as soon as possible.
Online contributions are also graded, with students needed to post a minimum of one relevant entry to
the weekly glossary.
2.9 WEEKLY ONLINE PARTICIPATION
Each module begins with a series of preparation activities, including a practice quiz. For in-person
students, these reading must be completed prior to the lecture that week. For online students, the
material should be completed by Friday of the first week the module runs.

You should also check or subscribe to the announcements, so you receive any important course
information, like change of venue, cancelled lectures or changes to the quizzes or due dates.

In summary, online each week it is expected that you:

• Do the online learning activities for that week

• Post or respond to questions in the forum
• Post a well referenced definition to the glossary
section

2.10 ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND PLAGIARISM

2.11 SPECIAL CONSIDERATION
Applying for special consideration does not mean that you will
be granted additional assessment or that you will be awarded an amended result. The latter will be
granted at the discretion of teaching staff and will be considered only in exceptional circumstances. The
timing of any additional assessment is entirely at the discretion of teaching staff.

2.12 EQUITY AND DIVERSITY

Those students who have a disability that requires some adjustment in their teaching or learning
environment are encouraged to discuss their study needs with the course convener prior to, or at the
commencement of, their course, or with the Equity Officer (Disability) in the Equity and Diversity Unit
(9385 4734 or http://www.studentequity.unsw.edu.au/). Issues to be discussed may include access to
materials, signers or note-takers, the provision of services and additional exam and assessment
arrangements. Early notification is essential to enable any necessary adjustments to be made.

3 COURSE CONTENTS
This course is organised around 5 major modules. Each module has several phases:

• A Preparation Phase
• Readiness Assurance Test (RAT) Phase (short quizzes)
• Application Exercise Phase

3.1 PREPARATION PHASE

Prior to coming to the first class of a module (even the first lecture!), you will need to have completed
a number of online learning activities, such as watching videos, and readings. These are intended to
make the class time as effective as possible.

3.2 READINESS ASSURANCE TEST (RAT) PHASE

For each module, you will take a closed-book online quiz. The quiz is designed to test your readings
and learnings from the preparation phase and identify any gaps. We will discuss the results in the
forums and I will use the opportunity to give you feedback on the material that you might have
problems with. These marks contribute to your overall quiz mark and similar questions will reappear in
the final online quiz.
3.3 APPLICATION EXERCISE PHASE
In this phase, you will start doing some more applied work on the module. These have been designed
to facilitate engagement with the material, discussion in the team and industry-like problems that you
will solve.

3.4 COURSE MODULES

The course is split into 5 modules or modules:

1. Seismic Fundamentals
2. Seismic Interpretation
3. Seismic Data Processing
4. Well-ties and Convolution
5. Seismic Migration
4 ASSESSMENT
Assessment for this course is divided into the following:

Assessment Weighting by Course Learning Outcomes

2114 5014 6014 CLO1 CLO2 Discuss CLO3 CLO3

Formulate an the Implemen Demonstrate
interpretatio relationship t seismic strong oral
n of of seismic reflection and written
reservoir reflection processin communicatio
potential techniques g n
and seismic technique
interpretatio s as
n computer
algorithm
s

Class 35% 30% 35% ✓ ✓

Quizzes

Problem 30% 20% 30% ✓ ✓ ✓

based
learning

Individual 30% 40% 30% ✓ ✓ ✓

take-home
exams

Weekly 5% 10% 5% ✓ ✓
Written
Contribution
s

4.1 ONLINE QUIZZES

Students must complete the preparation learning activities for each module and then complete a
module test. There are two types of class quizzes: readiness assurance tests (RATs) and a summative
end-of-term quiz. The RAT will be conducted based on readings on the current module’s material but
may include questions on previous lectures. For the summative quizzes (such as a mid-term and end of
semester quiz), students will have expected to master the content of the course up to that point. The
end-of-year test will test students based on both the module quizzes and the application exercises in
the team-based learning assessments (see the next section).

The quiz format may vary but will generally consist of multiple-choice questions. Material may be
included that is not specifically detailed in the lecture but is designed to test your understanding of the
module and its broader implications.

Note that:

• only one attempt is allowed

• failure to submit the quiz by the deadline will result in zero marks
 • Quiz questions may be shuffled and drawn randomly from a bank of questions.

4.2 PROBLEM-BASED LEARNING (PBL) ASSESSMENTS

For each module, there will be a number of PBL assessments to submit,
covering a more in-depth approach to the module and building on the
preparation material. These assessments will feature more open-ended
questions and involve more thinking and calculation than the quiz questions,
although some of the responses will be multiple choice. In person students
will be divided into TBL groups that you will work with during class for the
whole semester. TBL assessments are conducted and graded in class each week and consist of two
parts: team quizzes and application exercises. Failure to attend class may impact your teams’
performance and/or result in your team grade being marked down by your peers in the peer-
evaluation. Twice during term, your peers will assess your contributions to the team and give you
feedback. These activities should be an exciting opportunity to share knowledge and learn from each
other. For online students, a high degree of participation in the online forums is expected.

4.3 INDIVIDUAL TAKE-HOME EXAMS

Two take-home exams will be issued during the course – one approximately midway through the
course and another at the end. These take-home exams must represent an individual effort and
plagiarism and other academic integrity violations will not be tolerated. You will be able to conduct
research to help answer the question, but the writing and effort must be your own work. Take-home
exams will have short deadlines (typically 1-2 weeks), so be prepared ahead of time with learning all
the class material up to that point as well as having time for answering the exam for that time. Specific
deadlines will be announced during the course.

I will fail students who do not abide by UNSW's policy on Academic Integrity and Plagiarism when
submitting take-home exams or other material for assessment.

Major mistakes include:

• Your references need to be cited twice! Once when you mention it and once with a full citation
at the end.
• Not using quotation marks when using someone else’s words.
• Paraphrasing by simply changing a few words from the original text.
• Over reliance on a single source to answer a question – for most cases you will need to compare
multiple sources and evaluate them in your own words.

4.4 WRITTEN CONTRIBUTIONS

Each week, your contribution to the glossary will be assessed. Each week, you will get a mark /10 for a
glossary entry. The mark will be allocated based on the following:

• Properly referenced entry

• Relevant to the week’s material
5 RESOURCES AND SUPPORTS FOR STUDENTS
The following materials are a few sources you can use for gathering the latest research evidence and
theoretical propositions to help you in this course:

5.1 TEXTS AND COURSE READINGS

The readings for each module are provided via Leganto Online System

Recommended texts for this course include (all available via UNSW library online):

• Elements of Petroleum Geology by Selley and Sonnenberg, 3rd Edition (2015)

• Petroleum Geoscience from Sedimentary Environments to Rock Physics by Knut Bjørlykke (2010)

• Petroleum Geoscience by Gluyas and Swarbrick (2004)

5.2 INTERNET
There are numerous articles, wiki-pages on petroleum geology and field development on the web.
Many of them are sound, but many are either very lightweight or contain errors.

Your best source is going to be scholar.google.com or library.unsw.edu.au and conduct academic

searches of material. I encourage the use of journal articles but discourage the use of wikipages for
answering questions.

Also, if you are citing any material from the web you must openly acknowledge even when you present
the points in your own words. If you are unsure how to do this see:
http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism/pintro.html.

5.3 OTHER RESOURCES AND SUPPORTS

The University and the Faculty provide a wide range of support services for students, including:

• UNSW Learning Centre - http://www.lc.unsw.edu.au

• Counselling support - http://www.counselling.unsw.edu.au
• Library training and support services – http://www.library.unsw.edu.au

6 STUDYING A UG COURSE IN UNSW MINERALS AND

ENERGY RESOURCES ENGINEERING
6.1 COMPUTING RESOURCES AND INTERNET ACCESS REQUIREMENTS
It is essential that you have access to a PC or notebook computer. Mobile devices such as
smart phones and tablets may compliment learning, but access to a PC or notebook computer
is also required. Note that some specialist engineering software is not available for Mac
computers.
Mining Engineering Students: OMB G48/49
Petroleum Engineering Students: TETB
It is recommended that you have regular internet access to participate in forum discussion and
group work. To run Moodle most effectively, you should have:
• broadband connection (256 kbit/sec or faster)
• ability to view streaming video
More information about system requirements is available at
www.student.unsw.edu.au/moodle-system-requirements

6.2 ACCESSING COURSE MATERIALS THROUGH MOODLE

Course outlines, support materials are uploaded to Moodle, the university standard Learning
Management System (LMS). In addition, on-line assignment submissions are made using the
assignment dropbox facility provided in Moodle. All enrolled students are automatically
included in Moodle for each course. To access these documents and other course resources,
please visit: www.moodle.telt.unsw.edu.au

6.3 ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSIONS

The School has developed a guideline to help you when submitting a course assignment. We
encourage you to retain a copy of every assignment submitted for assessment for your own
record either in hardcopy or electronic form.

6.4 LATE SUBMISSION OF AN ASSIGNMENT

Full marks for an assignment are only possible when an assignment is received by the due
date. We understand that at times you may not be able to submit an assignment on time, and
the School will accommodate any fair and reasonable extension. We would recommend you
review the UNSW Special Consideration guidelines – see following section. Late assignments
will be penalised at a rate of 2% per day up to and including 14 days. After 14 days, the
assignment will receive a mark of 0.

6.5 SPECIAL CONSIDERATION

You can apply for special consideration through
UNSW Student Central when illness or other
circumstances interfere with your assessment
performance. Sickness, misadventure or other
circumstances beyond your control may:
• Prevent you from completing a course
requirement,
• Keep you from attending an assessable activity,
• Stop you submitting assessable work for a course,
• Significantly affect your performance in assessable work, be it a formal end-of-
semester examination, a class test, a laboratory test, a seminar presentation or any other form
of assessment. We ask that you please contact the Course Convenor immediately once you
have completed the special consideration application, no later than one week from
submission. More details on special consideration can be found at:
www.student.unsw.edu.au/special-consideration
6.6 COURSE RESULTS
For details on UNSW assessment policy, please visit: www.student.unsw.edu.au/assessment.
In some instances, your final course result may be withheld and not released on the UNSW
planned date. This is indicated by a course grade result of either:
• WD – which usually indicates you have not completed one or more items of assessment
or there is an issue with one or more assignment; or
• WC – which indicates you have applied for Special Consideration due to illness or
misadventure and the course results have not been finalised.
In either event it would be your responsibility to contact the Course Convener as soon as
practicable but no later than five (5) days after release of the course result. If you don’t contact
the convener on time, you may be required to re-submit an assignment or re-sit the final exam
and may result in you failing the course. You would also have a NC (course not completed)
mark on your transcript and would need to re-enroll in the course.

6.7 STUDENTS NEEDING ADDITIONAL SUPPORT

The Student Equity and Disabilities Unit (SEADU) aims to provide all students with support and
professional advice when circumstances may prevent students from achieving a successful
university education. Take a look at their webpage: www.studentequity.unsw.edu.au/

6.8 ACADEMIC HONESTY AND PLAGIARISM

Your lecturer and the University will expect your submitted assignments are truly your own
work. UNSW has very clear guidelines on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Plagiarism is
using the words or ideas of others and presenting them as your own. Plagiarism is a type of
intellectual theft. It can take many forms, from deliberate cheating to accidentally copying
from a source without acknowledgement. The University has adopted an educative approach
to plagiarism and has developed a range of resources to support students. All the details on
plagiarism, including some useful resources, can be found at
www.student.unsw.edu.au/plagiarism.
If you need some additional support with your writing skills, please contact the Learning
Centre or view some of the resources on their website: www.lc.unsw.edu.au/. The Learning
Centre is designed to help you improve your academic writing and communication skills. Some
students use the Centre services because they are finding their assignments a challenge,
others because they want to improve an already successful academic performance.
6.9 CONTINUAL COURSE IMPROVEMENT
As students and instructor - we are partners in this course and in your learning. I encourage all
students to share any questions or feedback they have at any time during the course – come
see me after a lecture or organise to meet with me. You can help me learn how to be a better
teacher.

Good luck with the course!

Stuart Clark
Sydney, May, 2019