Business News for the week of 1 April 2013

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Seismic crew survey reports

CGG acquires first BroadSeis 3D multiclient seismic survey in Norway

3 April 2013—CGG has started acquiring phase 1, known as Halten Terrace, of its Steppingstone BroadSeis 3D multiclient survey program offshore Norway. This is the first time CGG has acquired a 3D multiclient survey in the Norwegian North Sea using its broadband marine solution.

The Halten Terrace survey or Steppingstone phase 1 covers 2260 km² over the highly prospective Halten Terrace and targets the southern trend of already producing Jurassic reservoirs and discoveries in the Cretaceous. The survey is being acquired by the Oceanic Champion and the operation is expected to last three months.

The BroadSeis acquisition and processing parameters for this survey are being optimized to focus on providing better imaging of prospective Jurassic rotated fault blocks, inversion anticlines, and shallow targets. The survey is expected to open up potentially prospective late Cretaceous/Tertiary turbidite plays to the west.

 

Expanded CGG fleet achieves new industry records

4 April 2013—CGG announced that its new fleet, with the addition of four vessels from its recent acquisition of Fugro Geoscience, set two new industry records.

Firstly, CGG deployed the longest offsets in the industry for a full-azimuth multivessel survey for the recent multiclient IBALT survey in the Gulf of Mexico, offsets were 18 km. Secondly, the Geo Caribbean operating in the Gulf of Mexico is the largest man-made moving object on the face of the Earth, with its record-breaking 13.44 km2 towing configuration. CGG used a wide tow of eight streamers with a 160-m separation, 60% wider than a typical survey with a 100-m separation, enabling a greater area of data to be acquired in a single pass. By deploying a streamer length of 12,000 m, CGG delivered the long offsets required to achieve the survey's geological objectives. The end result is the largest single-vessel acquisition footprint in the world.

 

Knowledge Reservoir appoints vice president, reservoir management.

4 April 2013—Knowledge Reservoir appointed Charles "Chuck" Severson as its vice-president, reservoir management.

Severson will lead Knowledge Reservoir in all aspects of technical consulting and resourcing projects that deliver reservoir management solutions to its global client base. In addition, he will serve as the technical lead and QC manager for the company's ReservoirKB and CompassKB knowledge base product lines.

Severson joins the company from Hyperdynamics Corporation, where he held the position of chief reservoir engineer. Prior to that he worked as an independent oil and gas consultant delivering projects in Alaska, the Ukraine, Oman, Hungary, Russia, and Malaysia.

Severson started his career with Shell Oil, subsequently worked for ARCO in Alaska, the Middle East, and Central Asia as well as BP in Abu Dhabi before pursuing independent consulting. He earned his BS in geological engineering from the University of Arizona, Arizona School of Mines and his MS in petroleum engineering from the University of Houston.

 

Open Geophysical releases OpenCPS 3.0

5 April 2013—Open Geophysical released the OpenCPS 3.0 software platform, which delivers production seismic data processing for land and marine data.

The 3.0 release brings processing capabilities spanning from field QC through PSTM imaging. New land workflows include crooked line support and FXY deconvolution for cross-spread gathers. New marine workflows include 3D SRME and Fourier-domain regularization.

Open Geophysical was acquired by Dolphin Geophysical in 2012. Subsequently, Dolphin has installed OpenCPS 3.0 in its London processing center and on its four vessels for onboard quality control and fast-track processing. OpenCPS 3.0 supports Dolphin's full workflow from navigation merge through imaging including SHarp broadband processing.

 

Ingrain joint industry project in Utica shale play officially established

8 April 2013—Digital rock physics company Ingrain, Inc. has officially launched its multiclient study of the Utica-point Pleasant sequence, commonly referred to as the Utica shale play.

This joint industry project recently became active and the initial sponsor meeting will be held in the coming weeks. The project will focus on the following key issues: relationships between facies, depositional sequences and reservoir quality; shale pore types and their effect on total porosity and permeability; porosity-permeability trends for individual Utica and Point Pleasant facies; relative permeability and capillary pressure behavior; and linking core-derived reservoir quality to well loges and well productivity.

 

SIGMA3 releases Seismic Studio v1.7

9 April 2013—SIGMA3 Integrated Reservoir Solutions, Inc. released Seismic StudioT v1.7, which offers performance and data handling enhancements for oil and gas operators and service companies who manage large seismic surveys from complex geologic environments. Seismic Studio is a statics solution for challenging land, transition zone, and shallow marine OBC surveys.

 

WesternGeco commences IsoMetrix multiclient seismic survey in Barents Sea

9 April 2013—WesternGeco has begun acquisition of its Ice Bear 2 multiclient 3D survey in the western Barents Sea using its new IsoMetrix marine isometric seismic technology. The isometric inline and crossline sampling delivered by the IsoMetrix technology will provide high-resolution broadband imaging in this geologically complex area.

Ice Bear 2 lies to the north of the WesternGeco Bjørnøya Ice Bear and West Loppa 3D seismic survey areas where the Havis and Skrugard discoveries were made. Exploration and production activities in the region have increased as a result of these and other discoveries in the area.

 

CGG awarded Statoil contracts for PRM seismic imaging services over Norwegian Snorre and Grane fields

9 April 2013—CGG has been awarded two contracts by Statoil ASA to provide long-term seismic imaging services for permanent reservoir monitoring (PRM) operations on the Snorre and Grane fields in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea. The scope of each contract also includes acquisition QC services.

The contracts are for an initial fixed term of four years for each field, with an option for Statoil to extend each contract by two further terms of two years each. The first survey is scheduled to commence on 1 October 2013 over Snorre Field.

CGG will set up two PRM dedicated processing centers within Statoil's offices in Stavanger and Bergen.