Business News for the week of 13 June 2012

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Seismic crew survey reports

ffA GeoTeric software certified for NVIDIA Maximus Technology

04 June 2012—Geological Expression software provider ffA has announced certification of its flagship product, GeoTeric, on the NVIDIA Maximus platform.

GeoTeric directly translates geophysical data into geological information. Its data-driven, interpreter-guided approach reduces subjectivity and removes weeks from the interpretation workflow. Geological Expression is based on the union between objective data analysis and user guided interaction.

GeoTeric software running on NVIDIA Maximus-powered workstations provides the kind of GPU horsepower required for conducting large-model visualization and GPU- based computations simultaneously on the interpreter's desktop. NVIDIA Maximus technology combines the visualization and interactive design capability of NVIDIA Quadro GPUs and the high-performance computing power of NVIDIA Tesla GPUs into a single workstation. Tesla companion processors automatically perform the heavy lifting of photorealistic rendering or engineering simulation computation. This frees up the Quadro GPU to be dedicated to powering rich, full-performance, interactive seismic visualization.

 

ffA announces opening of Rio de Janeiro office

04 June 2012—ffA announced the company has secured an office facility in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which opens for business in June.

ffA is expanding its operation into Brazil as a direct result of its business development and growth strategy in this region. Romario Lima, who joins the company as business development manager will be based in the Rio office as the newest member of the Americas team headed up by Chris Cottam.

Lima will be joined by a technical and support team of geoscientists to provide software, training, consultancy, and services throughout Brazil and Latin America. 

 

David J. Crowley named president of Geokinetics

31 May 2012—Geokinetics appointed David J. Crowley as president and chief operating officer of the company.

Crowley spent his first 20 years in the energy service industry with Schlumberger, where he held international assignments in key positions for operations, engineering, and marketing. Most recently, Crowley was president and CEO at Enventure Global Technology.

Crowley holds a bachelor of science in marine engineering from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy and he participated in Advanced Management Programs with INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France; London School of Economics and Political Science, England; and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE), the International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), the National Association of Corporate Director (NACD), and the American Petroleum Institute (API).

 

TGS announces expansion of multiclient 3D survey in the Faroe Shetland Basin

06 June 2012—TGS commences expansion of a 3D multiclient survey covering 2000 km²in the Faroe Shetland Basin spanning the UK Faroe median line. The acquisition is in partnership with PGS and is completion of the previously announced FSB11 survey.

The new seismic data is being acquired by the PGS Ramform Viking towing 12 x 6000-m streamers with 75-m separation. The new 3D data will play a role in the development of the Cambo and Tornado fields and provide new data coverage across exploration blocks applied for in the recent UK 27th License Round.

Data processing will be performed by both TGS and PGS and be available to clients in mid 2013.

 

CGGVeritas announces BroadSeis award             

06 June 2012—CGGVeritas has been awarded a contract by Lundin Petroleum to conduct a survey of over 2700 km² with BroadSeis, its broadband marine solution, using for the first time its broadband source option, BroadSource. The survey of the Haugaland High in Quadrant 16 of the Norwegian sector of the North Sea started in May 2012 and is expected to last 3.5 months. This survey covers the fields formerly known as Luno and Avaldsnes, which were renamed as Edvard Grieg and Johan Sverdrup in early 2012. Johan Sverdrup is widely estimated to be the largest oil discovery in Norway in recent years.

 

OTC announces the launch of OTC Asia in 2014


05 June 2012—The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Board of Directors has approved the establishment of the Offshore Technology Conference Asia. The initial event will be held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 10–12 March 2014 and as a biennial event going forward, will be located in prominent cities throughout the region.

OTC Asia will be created under the same successful brand as the flagship OTC, held in Houston; the Arctic Technology Conference; and OTC Brazil. The technical program will be developed with the 13 sponsoring organizations (which includes SEG) to embrace a full spectrum of offshore technology. The conference will focus on offshore resource development with an emphasis on subsea and above surface facility issues.

A Malaysian Task Force has been created to work together to manage interests in order to ensure the event meets the needs of the industry. The task force comprises representatives from the national oil company, PETRONAS; government agencies, the Malaysia Petroleum Resources Corporation (MPRC), Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE), the Malaysia Investment Development Authority (MIDA); and trade association, Malaysian Oil & Gas Services Council (MOGSC).

 

CGGVeritas announces fourth acquisition on North Sea EKOFISK life-of-field seismic program

07 June 2012—CGGVeritas will begin acquiring a fourth repeat survey (LoFS04) on the Ekofisk Field in the North Sea as part of the multiyear life-of-field seismic (LoFS) program for which it was awarded both the seismic data acquisition and processing.

Mobilization is starting early June 2012, and the shooting period will last approximately one month in accordance with the LoFS program schedule. The program is being acquired with a four-component (4C) fiber-optic permanent reservoir monitoring (PRM) solution, deploying 16,000 Sercel OPTOWAVE ocean-bottom channels. More than two years after the full-scale fiber-optic installation, all channel sensors are providing data that are being utilized to provide 4D reservoir monitoring images to the client.

Quality Control and processing of the data from each repeat survey are performed by a team of CGGVeritas acquisition and processing specialists based in Tananger (Norway). In addition to the full optical sensor network trenched at the seafloor, a fiber-optic connection to the shore allows real-time remote operation.

 

CGGVeritas announces R&D collaboration with Saudi Aramco

07 June 2012—CGGVeritas has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Saudi Aramco for collaborative research and development of geophysical acquisition, processing, analysis, and interpretation technologies.

The MOU creates a framework for Saudi Aramco and CGGVeritas to identify opportunities for research, development, and testing of advanced technologies, including: automation in the seismic value chain for oil and gas exploration and field development, permanent reservoir monitoring systems, non-seismic geophysics, and inversion of seismic/non-seismic data.

 

EMGS signs contract extension with PEMEX

11 June 2012—EMGS announced a contract extension worth approximately US 39 million with PEMEX, one of the world's largest national oil companies.

The BOA Thalassa will continuously acquire 3D EM data in the Mexican sector of the Gulf of Mexico throughout the contract extension period.

 

CGGVeritas announces new Melbourne processing and imaging center

12 June 2012—CGGVeritas has opened a new processing and imaging center in Melbourne, Australia. The Melbourne center extends the services and accessibility of CGGVeritas in Australia where it has had an ongoing presence since 1981 and opened its main Perth office in 2000.

Although Perth has traditionally been the center of the Australian oil and gas industry, there are also major E&P activities on the East coast. Melbourne, in particular, is home to both traditional and emerging Australian oil and gas players. The remit of the new CGGVeritas Melbourne processing and imaging center is to serve clients in Eastern Australia, particularly the emerging CSG (coal seam gas) hub of Brisbane, and the expanding New Zealand market. The center is staffed by a team of experienced geophysicists who provide advanced seismic processing and imaging services.

 

Schlumberger releases integrated completion and stimulation design software

12 June 2012—Schlumberger released the Mangrove reservoir-centric stimulation design software that enables better decision making for well completion and fracturing programs. Developed on the Petrel E&P software platform, Mangrove users can access the shared Earth model to facilitate program designs for all types of reservoirs.

Mangrove reservoir-centric stimulation design software offers the completion advisor for perforation picking and staging that leverages accurate reservoir definition, and includes predictive complex hydraulic fracture as well as conventional planar fracture models. Measurements and information including seismic, geological, geomechanical, and microseismic data can be integrated with a reservoir simulator through the Petrel platform to provide an integrated seismic-to-simulation workflow.