dGB Earth Sciences is releasing OpendTect Version 6.0 and OpendTect Pro, a seismic interpretation platform for professionals that acts as a commercial layer on top of the free OpendTect software. The software will be launched during the 2015 SEG Annual Conference and Exhibition in New Orleans.

OpendTect serves open-source, academic and commercial users and seeks to provide solutions for data visualization and attribute analysis. In addition, the software has been used as a platform to run workflows supported by commercial plug-ins and can now be used as a seismic interpretation system.

OpendTect Pro seeks to provide improved conventional seismic interpretation workflows in addition to workflows available via the company’s commercial plug-ins. The software offers additional functionality, including Schlumberger’s PetrelDirect for data interaction with Petrel; PDF-3-D, which enables the grabbing and sharing of interactive 3-D PDF files; a new basemap utility with mapping functionality that improves OpendTect’s user interaction; a ray tracer for amplitude-vs.-offset analysis; and the Thalweg tracker, a 3-D horizon/body tracker for seismic facies analysis.

In addition, the software will see a redesign of its seismic interpretation workflows within the open-source software for improvements to usability. This includes a new 3-D horizon tracker, improved 2-D seismic interpretation workflows, improved fault interpretation workflows, an overhaul of existing 2-D viewers, increased speeds for data handling and RGB+RGBA color blending in volumes. OpendTect 6.0 is sponsored and steered by BG Group.

During SEG 2015, the company also will introduce the Faults & Fractures OpendTect plug-in. The technology offers new fault attributes and edge-preserving smoothing filters as well as tools for extracting fault planes and unfaulting seismic volumes.

Figure 1 shows the new thinned fault likelihood attribute, which is based on algorithms developed at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM).

dGB is implementing a new 3-D HorizonCube algorithm also based on CSM algorithms. Instead of tracking the dip field as with the current HorizonCube tracker, the new algorithm provides a constrained inversion of the dip field with any errors globally minimized. Constraints are in the form of user-picked positions on multiple seismic events. In addition, faults—automatic and/or interpreted—can optionally be included to constrain the solution.