Business news for the week of 8 June 2011 News section front Past news briefs Seismic crew survey reports

TGS Extends 3D seismic contract for the M/V Polar Duke

3 June 2011—TGS has exercised the first option for the M/V Polar Duke with Dolphin Geophysical AS.  This extension is for two months, which will take the total charter time to TGS through early October 2011.  TGS still has a second option to extend the contract by an additional six months.

 

Caltech Researchers Find Compaction Bands in Sandstone are Permeable

3 June 2011—When geologists survey an area of land for the potential that gas or petroleum deposits could exist there, they must take into account the composition of rocks that lie below the surface. Take, for instance, sandstone-a sedimentary rock composed mostly of weakly cemented quartz grains. Previous research had suggested that compaction bands-highly compressed, narrow, flat layers within the sandstone-are much less permeable than the host rock and might act as barriers to the flow of oil or gas. 

Now, researchers led by José Andrade, associate professor of civil and mechanical engineering at the California Institute of Technology, have analyzed X-ray images of Aztec sandstone and revealed that compaction bands are actually more permeable than earlier models indicated. While they do appear to be less permeable than the surrounding host rock, they do not appear to block the flow of fluids. Their findings were reported in the May 17 issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

The study includes the first observations and calculations that show fluids have the ability to flow in sandstone that has compaction bands. Prior to this study, there had been inferences of how permeable these formations were, but those inferences were made from 2D images. This paper provides the first permeability calculations based on actual rock samples taken directly from the field in the Valley of Fire, Nevada. From the data they collected, the researchers concluded that these formations are not as impermeable as previously believed, and that therefore their ability to trap fluids-like oil, gas, and CO2-should be measured based on 3D images taken from the field.

The research team connected the rocks' 3D micromechanical features-such as grain size distribution, which was obtained using microcomputed tomography images of the rocks to build a 3D model-with quantitative macroscopic flow properties in rocks from the field, which they measured on many different scales. Those measurements were the first ever to look at the three-dimensional ability of compaction bands to transmit fluid. The researchers say the combination of these advanced imaging technologies and multiscale computational models will lead to unprecedentedly accurate measurements of crucial physical properties, such as permeability, in rocks and similar materials.

 

ION offers RTM-based velocity modeling tool

11 June 2011—ION Geophysical Corporation announced that its GX Technology (GXT) Imaging Solutions group has introduced a new suite of data processing tools that allow interpreters companies to quickly test salt model hypotheses in 3D using reverse time migration, securely from their desktops. Known as RTM3, which stands for real-time model morphing and migration, this new technology allows the interpreter to test "what if" scenarios in a matter of hours rather than weeks.

 

TGS announces 7th airborne survey of 2D seismic data in Greenland

8 June 2011—TGS will commence acquisition of 42,000 km of magnetics, gravity, and oil-seep data in southeast Greenland during the second quarter of 2011.  The total airborne data coverage in Greenland after the 2011 season will be approximately 311,000 km. Data processing will be performed by TGS and will be available to clients in the third quarter of 2011. 

 

TGS announces a new 3D multiclient seismic survey in the North Viking Graben

8 June 2011—TGS has commenced the acquisition of a fourth 3D multiclient survey in partnership with PGS. The survey covers 2,772 km2 in the North Viking Graben over an area which has proven to be a very successful petroleum province of the North Sea. The data is being acquired by PGS' Atlantic Explorer utilizing GeoStreamer technology.  This year's acquisition campaign, combined with the data acquired in 2009–2010, will total over 7,500 km2 of 3D data in this region.