Interview with Mike Forrest, 'father of bright spots' and 'oil finder' at Shell Oil

摘要

My coworkers in Shell like to say that I discovered "bright spots" when I was a seismic interpreter during 1968-69 in the New Orleans office. Improved seismic data quality using digital signal processing made reflection amplitude changes easier to recognize, and I was persistent in relating these amplitude changes to direct detection of oil and gas pays. High-amplitude seismic reflections that conformed to structure were mapped over the crests of several Pleistocene age structures in offshore Texas and Louisiana. These strong reflections were coined "bright spots" during meetings and coffee breaks in the Shell New Orleans office during early 1969. At first, the term bright spots was sort of a joke as most geoscientists were skeptical of a possible relationship to gas and oil pays.