Dr. Hui Xie of Schlumberger-Doll Research Center

Modern oil and gas wells can extend thousands of meters horizontally through complex and heterogeneous geological formations. Successfully drilling and placing a well within the desired reservoir requires the ability to detect and characterize geological structures beyond the immediate vicinity of the wellbore. Over the past two decades, sophisticated electromagnetic sensing technologies have been developed to address this challenge. These technologies, broadly known as deep azimuthal resistivity (DAR) and ultra-deep azimuthal resistivity (UDAR), have become key sensing methods in the industry.

This talk will provide an overview of UDAR technologies and the underlying electromagnetic principles that make such remote subsurface sensing possible. Beginning with a brief introduction to oilfield exploration and development, we will review the fundamentals of electromagnetic propagation in anisotropic conductive media, basic UDAR hardware systems, and directional electromagnetic measurements that provide information about formation properties and boundaries beyond the wellbore. We will then discuss how the measured data are transformed into geological models to guide drilling decisions and help maximize reservoir exposure and production. Finally, we will explore the role of electrical engineering, computational science, and data science in advancing subsurface sensing and real-time geosteering in the modern energy industry.

Biography:

Dr. Hui Xie received his Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from Iowa State University in 2012. From 2012 to 2014, he worked as a postdoctoral scientist at Schlumberger-Doll Research Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He subsequently worked at SLB Houston Formation Evaluation Center as a senior modeling and simulation Engineer. In 2025, he returned to the Schlumberger-Doll Research Center as a senior research scientist. His research interests include modeling and interpretation algorithm design for well logging tools, electromagnetic modeling, nondestructive evaluation, high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, and inverse problems. Dr. Xie has more than 20 research publications. He is a Senior Member of IEEE and a member of SPWLA. He served as an Associate Editor for Petrophysics as well as a technical reviewer for more than ten academic journals and publishers, including Springer, Geophysics, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, etc. He also served as the Chair of the SPWLA Resistivity SIG from 2019 to 2023. In 2014, he was awarded as a SPWLA Distinguished Speaker.

Address:United States