Business news for the week of 18 March 2009

Past news briefs

Roxar launches Tempest 6.5
10 March 2009—Roxar announced the release of Tempest 6.5, the latest version of its reservoir simulation software suite.

Tempest 6.5 comes with parallel processing capabilities in both serial and parallel simulation runs, allowing users to conduct faster simulation runs in greater levels of detail.

Tempest 6.5’s visualization capabilities for the user include the ability to calculate streamlines for each phase from the simulator results and to develop 3D cross sections, enhanced line graphs, and data displays.

CGGVeritas to acquire Gabon deepwater program
5 March 2009—CGGVeritas announced it will acquire two 2D seismic surveys offshore Gabon. These surveys will provide high-quality and targeted data to complement the 10th Gabonese Licence Round, recently announced as taking place between June and December 2010. The round will be Gabon’s first since 1999 and will focus on the highly prospective deepwater presalt, a region analogous to that of the recent large deepwater discoveries offshore Brazil. 

The two surveys will be located in the north and south of Gabon’s underexplored deepwater blocks. In the north (Zone Nord) CGGVeritas will acquire a 2200-km grid designed to highlight Tertiary and Cretaceous plays. In the south (Zone Sud) a 7400-km long offset survey will provide imaging beneath the Aptian salt to help identify potential traps.

The Zone Sud survey is part of a three-phase program designed by CGGVeritas. First, basin-wide depth modeling will be undertaken using existing data and a CGGVeritas test line. During the second phase, a comprehensive gravity gradiometry survey will provide detail on the salt architecture. This information will be used to constrain PSDM models. The third phase is the acquisition of a targeted 2D grid. The potential for further acquisition, including 3D, will be assessed after completion of the three-phase program.

Eric Isaacs named director of Argonne National Laboratory
11 March 2009—Eric D. Isaacs, a University of Chicago physicist and senior administrator at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, has been selected to become the next director of Argonne. The appointment will be effective 1 May 2009.

University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer made the announcement in his capacity as Chairman of the Board of Directors of UChicago Argonne, which operates Argonne for the Department of Energy. The university has managed Argonne for the United States government since 1946. Energy Secretary Steven Chu met yesterday with Isaacs and Zimmer in his office in Washington, D.C., and supported Isaacs’ candidacy.

Schlumberger expands Deep Reading portfolio
16 March 2009—Schlumberger announced the expansion of its Deep Reading portfolio with the release of its electromagnetic DeepLook-EM enhanced crosswell reservoir imaging and monitoring system and the acquisition of crosswell seismic reservoir imaging technology. The services include prejob planning, modeling, simulation, acquisition, processing, and inversion to deliver interwell reservoir images.

The second-generation DeepLook-EM system provides detailed resistivity profiles between wells up to 1 km apart using induction logging principles. Acquisition is performed using a dynamic transmitter sonde in one well and an array of receivers in an offset well. Receivers can be deployed in open or cased wells.

Interwell resistivity variations can be caused by changes in saturation during waterflooding, in temperature during steamflooding or porosity reduction if subsidence occurs. With time-lapse monitoring using DeepLook-EM, flood-front movement can be depicted and tracked. All field data are compiled within Petrel seismic-to-simulation software and are integrated to model and interpret the reservoir volume logged.

TGS expands 3D survey in DeSoto Canyon through cooperation agreement
16 March 2009—TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company announced the formation of a cooperation agreement with Petroleum Geo-Services to combine the previously announced and ongoing TGS Hernando 3D survey and the PGS Discovery Desoto Canyon MC3D survey into one large, 3D multiclient project in the Desoto Canyon in the central and eastern Gulf of Mexico Planning areas.

This joint survey, named “Hernando,” will cover a 365 OCS block area (8,500 km2).  More than 225 equivalent blocks have already been recorded by the two companies using one 3D vessel each, and a subset of this data is currently available for use in the March 2009 OCS lease sale.
 
Final data from the full survey is expected to be available to clients by the end of 2009.

Christie’s Mirage HD projectors and Vista Systems’ Spyder to power Marathon’s visualization center
16 March 2009—Christie announced that its Christie Mirage HD projectors and the Vista Spyder video display processor were chosen by Marathon Oil to upgrade the company’s visualization center. Called the Visionarium, the center is a collaborative, multidiscipline environment in which geologists, geophysicists, engineers, and drilling experts review data that includes seismic, well, and other critical information on a giant curved cylindrical projection screen measuring 8 ft high by 27 ft long.

The company has used Christie since switching from CRT to DLP displays five years ago. It moved from a three-projector system featuring Christie Mirage projectors that delivered 2000 ANSI lumens each at 1280 x 1024 resolution with 3D active stereo to the brighter, two-projector Mirage HD6 system that offers up to 12,000 ANSI lumens and 1920 x 1080 resolution with 3-D active stereo. The Vista Spyder switches from a Linux workstation to PC without any visible delay, a process that previously demanded a wait of up to 60 s. ʉ۬

OpenSpirit names Belrhalia as business development manager for Middle East and Africa
16 March 2009—Mehdi Belrhalia has joined OpenSpirit in its Abu Dhabi, UAE office as business development manager. He will be responsible for direct sales and support for the region, as well as managing the existing OpenSpirit authorized agents and resellers.

Belrhalia comes to OpenSpirit from Schlumberger Information Solutions where he served as the sales and marketing manager for southeastern Europe. He started with SIS in 1997 as a geophysicist and assumed a number of different roles in France, west Africa, north Africa and southeastern Europe.

CGGVeritas expands Cairo hub

16 March 2009—CGGVeritas has expanded its processing and imaging hub in Cairo. The opening ceremony was attended by representatives of the Egyptian Free Zone authorities, as well as prominent personalities from the local oil and gas business community.

The new expanded regional hub can process all types of seismic data, including wide-azimuth and multi-azimuth, through the latest advanced imaging techniques. It provides 24-hour, local support to clients for E&P projects across the region.

Located in the Free Zone of Nasr City, Cairo, the hub employs 70 professionals from 14 nationalities, including over 40 geophysicists, supported on commercial projects by a pool of R&D personnel and technical geophysical supervisors.

Schlumberger introduces new telemetry platform

17 March 2009—Schlumberger announced the release of its Orion II telemetry platform. The new platform enables communication with bottomhole assemblies whether drilling at high penetration rates or longer boreholes.

The Orion II telemetry platform combines data compression technology housed in the MWD/LWD tool with new surface and downhole sensors that modulate and demodulate signals and overcome interference from drilling and rig noise. Downlink commands are sent in real time while drilling without affecting delivery of measurement data to surface.

The recent extended-reach drilling record by Maersk Oil Qatar was drilled and geosteered using a PowerDrive rotary steerable system, geoVISION imaging-while-drilling service, adnVISION azimuthal density neutron tool, and TeleScope high-speed telemetry service running the Orion II telemetry platform.

Presently available on IMPulse, adnVISION475, and EcoScope LWD services, as well as TeleScope and SlimPulse telemetry systems, the Orion II platform is scheduled for rapid deployment to other tools in the company’s LWD/MWD fleet.