By Gus Morgan

As an elementary student in India, Baishali Roy used to accompany her father, Kalyan Kumar Roy, on geological field trips.

“My dad was my inspiration,” she said. “He was a professor of geophysics at the Indian Institute of Technology, West Bengal.”

For Baishali, the allure of trying to understand the rocks and subsurface was exciting, a mysterious frontier that captivated her imagination.

“It was fun to me,” she said. “So, when I went to college, I studied geophysics.”

A scientific mindset

After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in geophysics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Baishali earned a doctorate in geophysics from the University of Western Ontario. She also completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver.

In 2000, Baishali joined ConocoPhillips in Ponca City, Okla., a milestone moment that marked the beginning of her work in the oil and gas industry. Fast forward to 2021 and Baishali is manager of geophysics in Global Technical Functions. She leads a multidisciplinary team that provides technology development and support to the business units in their quest to find and develop hydrocarbons.

I've had the privilege to work with almost every business unit and asset team at ConocoPhillips.

“I’ve had the privilege to work with almost every business unit and asset team at ConocoPhillips, using geophysical methods for exploration or development,” she said. “I have a lot of talented people around me. I enjoy leading my team, motivating them and directing them as to how they can deliver impactful contributions. That brings me a lot of satisfaction.”

Baishali’s geophysics team uses various applications to gather and analyze data, including seismic, microseismic, data analytics, remote sensing, machine learning and fiber optics.

A range of experience

Over the years, Baishali has taken on numerous corporate functional roles at ConocoPhillips, from individual technical contributor to technology team leader and management positions. Along the way, she’s managed research teams involved with time-lapse 4D seismic interpretation, fiber optics and reservoir characterization. Baishali has also been on three SPIRIT Award-winning teams (2016-18) recognized for their technical accomplishments in the company’s Eagle Ford and Bakken assets. She’s also an inventor, sharing multiple patents with colleagues for their work with fiber optics technology development.

“In the last five to six years, fiber optics have played a big role," she said, "and that's where a lot of our technology innovations are happening. There are multiple applications for fiber optics. It’s a very precise and accurate sensing method.”

A multi-purpose sensing tool

ConocoPhillips is using this sensing method for completions monitoring, production monitoring, seismic profiling, injection monitoring and well-bore integrity monitoring. Baishali and her colleagues pioneered the use of low-frequency fiber-optic data to better understand stimulated rock volume and flow production profiles for wells, which are now industry adopted.

“It helps you to characterize," she said. "It helps you to de-risk, and it helps you to be ahead of the decline curve.”

The Lower 48 and Canada business units are already reaping the benefits of this precision technology, she said, using fiber optics to understand completions efficiency and well spacing/stacking/sequencing decisions. The technology is shedding light on understanding the dynamic interaction between parent/child wells and drivers that impact production in assets such as the Permian and Eagle Ford. In addition, the Norway business unit is using fiber-optic technology for injection and production profiling for waterflood management.

Exploring new ways to use fiber optics

In collaboration with the business units, Baishali’s team is testing new ways to use fiber optics. For instance, they are working with the Alaska business unit on technology field trials at Kuparuk for flow metering at the surface.

“We are testing how we can use fiber optics wrapped around wellheads or pipelines,” she said. “We can use the acoustic signal and machine learning methods (virtual flow metering) to produce a continuous, multi-well multiphase-flow solution that could be used for production optimization.”

The drilling and completions teams are also interested in fiber optics for optimizing drilling fluid intake and outtake. Another future field application involves closed-loop reservoir management in the company’s Willow asset in Alaska. Instrumenting oil fields for smarter, faster decision making can benefit multiple asset teams.

'Stay innovative'

Such groundbreaking technical work continues to fuel Baishali's enduring enthusiasm for geophysics, a dream discipline that has enthralled her since childhood. The adoption of machine learning and advanced analytics for extracting more from seismic, fiber, microseismic data and cross-disciplinary integration is another area of interest for Baishali.

"Stay innovative," she said, "and find ways to move the needle."

---

AT A GLANCE:

Name: Baishali Roy

Job title: Manager, Geophysics, in Global Technical Functions

Fast facts: Participates in professional society activities such as the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Society of Exploration Geophysicists Leadership ; as a member of the ConocoPhillips Geoscience Talent Management Team, Baishali is helping develop the company’s next generation of geoscientists.

Quick quote: “For all the technology, I enjoy working with our reservoir engineers, completion engineers and production engineers because I want to see how we can apply geophysics to help them with their problems.”