Overview
Four decades of geophysics, one standard of rigor.
Alvaro Chaveste is a geophysicist who has spent more than four decades in oil and gas exploration and field development, working for operators, service companies, and through his own firm, TraceSeis, Inc., which he founded in Houston in 2003. His expertise spans borehole seismic, surface seismic data processing, rock physics modeling, AVO and AVAZ analysis, seismic inversion, and machine learning lithofacies prediction.
He co-developed the Relative Rock Properties methodology — an inversion approach that delivers reliable reservoir property estimates without dependence on Low Frequency Models — published as a Best Paper in SEG's The Leading Edge. He writes the software when what he needs doesn't exist commercially. That discipline produced SeisTool, POLISH, and CONFIRM.
6
Peer-reviewed publications
Published Research
Peer-reviewed methodology in active use.
SEG · The Leading Edge · 2014Best Paper
Relative rock physics
Ball, V., Blangy, J.P., Schiott, C., and Chaveste, A. — The Leading Edge 33(3), 276–286.
Foundational paper behind TraceSeis's Relative Rock Properties methodology. Cited 40+ times.
SEG · The Leading Edge · 2025
A novel, fast, and efficient machine learning approach for lithofacies prediction: A lithology identification case study in the Niobrara Formation
Chaveste, A., Roden, R., and Smith, T. — DOI: 10.1190/tle44090728.1
Data-driven lithofacies prediction methodology without dependence on low-dimensionality physical model fitting.
SEG · The Leading Edge · 2026
Machine Learning Lithofacies Prediction in a Deepwater Turbidite System: Integrating Self-Organizing Maps and K-Means Clustering for High-Resolution Reservoir Characterization
Hussein, M., Chaveste, A., Mohamed, I., and Wu, J.
Extends the lithofacies-prediction methodology to deepwater turbidite reservoirs.
AGU Fall Meeting · 2025
Integrated Machine Learning and Seismic-Well Data Workflow for Lithofacies Prediction and Reservoir Risk Characterization at the Illinois Basin-Decatur Carbon Storage Site
Khalifa, T., Chen, X., Williams-Stroud, S.C., and Chaveste, A.
SEG · The Leading Edge · 2013
Robust rock properties through PP-PS processing and interpretation — Marcellus Shale
Chaveste, A., Zhao, Z., Altan, S., and Gaiser, J. — The Leading Edge 32(1), 86–92.
Cited 20+ times.
AAPG Explorer · 2018
Relative Rock Properties — An Alternative to Estimate Reservoir Properties from Seismic Data
Chaveste, A. — AAPG Explorer, 2018.
Full bibliography and citation record: Google Scholar — Alvaro Chaveste →