Prof. dr. Stefan Luthi

Expertise

Petroleum geology, reservoir characterization, sedimentology and borehole logging.

Teaching

Petroleum Geology, Reservoir Characterization for Field Development, Production Geological Field Course (Germany), miscellaneous single lectures at other courses.

Research

My research interests are quite broad and most of the time interdisciplinary. The common thread to most projects is that I like to investigate new techniques and methods to better understand the subsurface composition and architecture of reservoirs. Quite often I use research boreholes for this purpose, as can be seen from my publication record. Linking core, well log and seismic data is often the preferred way to achieve this, and with each one of these data sets new measurement or computational techniques can be tried, often in combination with each other. Including dynamic data such as fluid pressures and flow rates is often very valuable as well, as these data can provide signals quite far away from boreholes. It is thus obvious that I often work with geophysicists and reservoir engineers, and I have always found these collaborations very rewarding. As my original background is in sedimentology I still have one major activity in the field of sediment-laden subaqueous gravity currents, notably turbidity currents. The main focus here lies on the understanding of the behaviour of these currents on complex topographies such as strongly faulted continental margins or minbasins induced by salt tectonics. As of now I have supervised 17 PhD students and more than 50 MSc students, published over 50 peer-reviewed papers and written one book.

Current Research Projects (Supervisor)

• Geologic Knowledge in Non-Linear Seismic Inversion (Delphi, Ph.D. student Siddarth Sharma, 2013-2017)
• Estimating Reservoir Parameters from Non-Linear Seismic Inversion (Delphi, Ph.D. student Runhai Feng, 2013-2017)
• Modeling Subaqueous Megaflows (ISES, Ph.D student Navid Hermidas, 2014-2018)
• Modeling turbidite deposits from outcrops and Brazilian reservoirs (Petrobras, Ph.D. student Thaís Almeida Cabral Empinotti, 2014-2018)
• Multiscale petrophysical properties of sub-salt Aptian carbonate rocks (Schlumberger, Ph.D. student Rodolfo Oliveira, 2014-2018)

Current Research Projects (Promotor)

• Untangling the sediment flux control in sedimentary basin stratigraphy (NWO Vidi; daily supervisor Joep Storms; Ph.D. student Andrea Forzoni; 2010-2014)
• Modeling of fluvial systems in a semi-arid basin setting (CSC plus various industry; daily supervisor Rick Donselaar; Ph.D. student Jiaguang Li; 2010-2014)
• A  basin-scale process-based model of a fluvio-deltaic network and stratigraphy (several sponsors; daily supervisor Gert Jan Weltje; Ph.D. student Pantelis Karamitopoulos; 2010-2014)
• Enhanced core processing: towards a semi-automatic characterization and interpretation strategy (Wintershall; supervisor Gert Jan Weltje; Ph.D. student Menno Bloemsma, 2011-2015)
• Bridging geological and engineering time scale: The application of process-based models in fluvial-deltaic reservoirs (Statoil; supervisor Joep Storms, Ph.D. student Liang Li; 2012-2016)
• Generating deltaic subsurface models using an integrated hydro-morphodynamic software modelling tool (Shell, NWO and Deltares; daily supervisor Joep Storms, Ph.D. student Helena van der Vegt; 2013-2017)