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Meeting Location:
slb
10001 Richmond Ave.
Houston, TX 77042

Schedule:
5:00- 5:30pm networking w light snacks
5:30-6:30pm talk + Q&A
~6:45pm dinner and more discussion to follow @ Los Tios, 9527 Westheimer Road

Speaker:  Alexandro Vera, slb

Accurate estimation of shear-wave velocity (Vs) is essential for subsurface characterization, geomechanical modeling, and seismic exploration or earth model building, yet Vs measurement are often scattered and unavailable. This study develops a rock-physics-informed recurrent neural network (RNN) that predicts Vs from conventional wireline logs (GR, resistivity) and drilling logs (Gas chromatography, ROP) while explicitly embedding physical constraints derived from elastic moduli relationships and lithology-dependent trends. The model leverages transfer learning by pre-training on a large, heterogeneous multi-basin dataset (Australia and Norway) and fine-tuning on a target field with limited labeled data. Incorporating rock-physics priors improves generalization, reduces non-physical predictions, and enhances stability in intervals with sparse or noisy logs. Results from multiple wells demonstrate that the proposed framework outperforms purely data-driven baselines, achieving lower prediction error and better preservation of geological trends. The findings highlight the value of hybrid physics–machine learning approaches for petrophysical prediction tasks and illustrate how transfer learning can mitigate data scarcity in reservoir characterization workflows.

Speaker Biography:

Dr. Alexandro Vera is a Geosolutions Geophysicist for North America Offshore, where he has worked on OBN projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico since 2024. He earned his Bachelor of Engineering (2008) from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, completing a thesis on viscoelastic wavefield propagation in 2.5D boreholes. He began his career as a Geomechanics Engineer at SLB, followed by nine years at PEMEX as a Rock Physicist and Quantitative Interpreter. He later completed his M.S. in Geophysics (2019) and Ph.D. in Geophysics (2024) at the University of Oklahoma. Before rejoining SLB in 2024, Dr. Vera served as a research assistant at the University of Oklahoma, where he received the 2024 Stan Cunningham Prize for Excellence in Teaching from the School of Geosciences. 

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