Rock Physics is a key component in oil and gas exploration, development and production. It combines concepts and principles from geology, geophysics, petrophysics, geomechanics, applied mathematics and other disciplines. Rock physics provides the empirical relationships, understanding and theory to connect elastic and electrical properties, measured at the surface of the earth, within the borehole environment or in the laboratory, to the intrinsic properties of rocks, such as mineralogy, porosity, pore shape, pore fluid, pore pressure, permeability, viscosity, stress and geological fabric such as laminations and fractures. Indeed, rock physics knowledge is essential to optimise sub-surface imaging and geological characterisation using a range of geophysical methods, especially elastic wave and electrical measurements.

We invite papers in all areas of rock physics pertinent to hydrocarbon exploration. The sessions will cover rock physics theory, digital rock physics, laboratory measurements and applications to analysis of field data in relation to related geoscience disciplines (geology, petrophysics and reservoir engineering).

Application of rock physics theory has flourished in recent years, and rock physics plays a major role in much of contemporary applied geophysics in the oil industry and beyond. A central aim of the workshop is to bring together experts and enthusiasts from industry and academia for a focussed discussion on the problems of greatest impact for applied rock physics.
 
Here are some of the questions we hope the workshop will help to answer:
        
What insights can we gain from digital rock models?      
How can we make AVO methodologies more quantitative?  
How should we model the properties of fractured reservoirs?         
What is the current status of low-frequency elastic laboratory measurements?         
How can rock physics support hydraulic fracturing for shale gas?         
Is it possible to integrate elastic and electrical measurements?
How do we deal with electrical anisotropy in CSEM?
What is the link between geological processes, microstructures and geophysical properties?
Are there any valid applications of seismic attenuation for fluid or fracture characterisation?
What are the valid parameterisations for rock physics models?
Can rock physics help full waveform inversion?
How do we integrate laboratory measurements with field scale data?
How best can we use rock physics to integrate seismic and production data?
How can we maximise the value of rock physics in the industry?    
Should there be a difference between petrophysics and rock physics?
How do we distinguish between measurement and model errors?
How are elastic and electrical anisotropy related?
    

Gold
Exxon-Mobil
IKON Science
Shell
National Oceanography Centre

Silver
BP
ION-GXT
Rock Solid Images

Bronze
BG-Group