Business news for the week of 13 May 2009

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Past news briefs
Seismic crew survey reports

Corporate restructuring and workforce reduction in EMGS
5 May 2009—Electromagnetic Geoservices announced measures to restructure the company and reduce its workforce. The measures are designed to reduce costs, focus resources in key areas, and improve the company's financial performance.

The fleet will be temporarily reduced from three to two vessels, and the organization will be scaled accordingly. These actions will result in 29 temporary layoffs, 28 redundancies, and 4 consultancy contracts being terminated.

EMGS anticipates that the measures will result in annual reductions in operating expenses of approximately US$8–10 million.

As a part of the restructuring, EMGS plans to further rationalize its product development efforts to focus on existing products and is working with its customers on potential new programs that involve sharing of research and development costs and capital expenditures.

Sonatrach to use Ingrain’s digital rock physics technology
5 May 2009—Ingrain announced that Sonatrach has signed a commercial agreement to use the company’s digital rock physics services.

Since starting up in 2007, Ingrain has introduced technologies in 3D imaging and computation that allow the company to compute physical properties and fluid flows in oil and gas reservoir rocks. This information allows oil and gas companies to estimate the potential of their reserves and make field development decisions.

Ingrain is has regional offices in Abu Dhabi, Calgary, and Rio de Janeiro and plans to expand its operations in the Middle East during 2009.

AGI accepting applications for Award for Excellence in Earth Science teaching
6 May 2009—The American Geological Institute (AGI) and the AGI Foundation are accepting applications for the Edward C. Roy, Jr. Award for Excellence in Earth Science Teaching. Given annually, this award recognizes one classroom teacher from kindergarten to eighth grade for his or her leadership and innovation in Earth science education.

The winner will receive a US$2500 prize and an additional grant of US$1000 to attend the 2009 Geological Society of America annual meeting in Portland, Oregon, USA. To be eligible for this year’s competition, applications must be postmarked by 31 May 2009.

This award is named in honor of Edward C. Roy, Jr., who was an energetic and dedicated supporter of Earth science education. He served as past president of AGI, chaired the AGI Education Advisory Committee, and received both the Ian Campbell medal and the Heroy Distinguished Service award. In addition, he served as the Gertrude and Walter Pyron Distinguished Professor of Geology at Trinity University, as Dean of the Division of Sciences, Mathematics, and Engineering, and as Vice President for Academic Affairs. Roy was also appointed Chair of the Texas Earth Science Task Force by the Commissioner of the Texas Education Agency.

Knowledge Reservoir ownership returns to founders
11 May 2009—Knowledge Reservoir announced the completion of a management buyout of the remaining shareholding held in the company by Ziebel.

The MBO represents the purchase by the founders, Ivor Ellul and Robert Archer, of the majority stake that Ziebel held subsequent to the acquisition of Knowledge Reservoir in May of 2007.

TGS Renaissance seismic program grows with 2009 acquisition plan
12 May 2009—The seventh season of the TGS Renaissance 2D seismic program in partnership with Fugro has commenced. This regional grid of long-offset and long-record seismic data has been expanding since 2003 and is located in the North, the Mid-Norway, and the Barents seas.

The 2009 seismic acquisition plan includes 40 000 km of data that will be located in all three of the survey areas. A minimum of five seismic vessels will be used to acquire the survey, and the processed data will be available to industry at the end of 2009. Upon completion of the 2009 acquisition plan, the TGS data library will contain approximately 220 000 km of regional Renaissance data.

PetrisWINDS OneTouch— A new collaboration and data access platform for exploration and production
12 May 2009—Petris Technology announced a new E&P knowledge portal—PetrisWINDS OneTouch. OneTouch will help organizations and asset teams make decisions by bringing all users and data together through a Web-based workspace and data environment. OneTouch integrates the Microsoft Office SharePoint and ESRI geographic information system with the PetrisWINDS Enterprise framework, a Petris service-oriented architecture solution. To accelerate the deployment of the OneTouch technology worldwide, Petris has formed a strategic partnership with Wipro Technologies, the IT Services business of Wipro Limited.

“Listening with Light” proves Fosar future shines bright
12 May 2009—Stingray Geophysical announced the completion of the 30-month “Listening with Light” development project to commercialize its unique fiber-optic sensing technology for permanent seismic reservoir monitoring. The qualification test program culminated in the successful demonstration of Stingray’s Fosar system to oil companies in offshore Norway sea trials at the end of 2008.

The Fosar system achieved all of the technology development program’s objectives in terms of setting the system design, delivering high-fidelity sensor performance comparable with other conventional seismic systems, and demonstrating to oil companies on a representative-sized system the specific benefits of highly repeatable, time-lapse or 4D seismic data. Such benefits include the optimization of hydrocarbon recovery schemes through well placement and the identification of untapped reserves.

New PGS/TGS multiclient rocks the cradle of North Sea production
13 May 2009—PGS and TGS announced a new high-density multiclient 3D survey in Quad 211 in the East Shetland Basin of the UK Northern North Sea. The ESB09 3D survey represents a joint investment for PGS and TGS for the North Sea summer season.

Quad 211 is home to many of the best-known production fields in the North Sea, including Brent, Ninian, Hutton, and Cormorant. The new 3D survey is expected to improve understanding of the geology of the area and uncover additional hydrocarbon accumulations.

ESB09 will employ the most modern HD3D technology. The Ramform Viking commenced mobilization in late April, with 16 streamers at 50-m separation. The survey is being acquired and operated by PGS. PGS and TGS will cooperate in marketing the data.

Petris debuts new commercial module, DataVera MasterSet
13 May 2009—Petris Technology announces the release of DataVera Version 8, which includes major improvements to existing DataVera functionality and introduces a new module for exploration and production master data management. The suite of tools leverages a repeatable and scalable E&P-specific rules engine to solve complex data issues. It contains five modules to quickly complete data profiling and assessment, large-scale data cleansing and consolidation, and ongoing data-quality monitoring.

DataVera MasterSet is the latest addition to the DataVera family of solutions and can achieve enterprise-wide MDM. In collaboration with clients who have used DataVera to implement MDM; the new module combines features that existed in the other DataVera modules into a single module with improved functionality.