Business news for the week of 19 April 2010News section front
Past news briefs
Seismic crew survey reports Ingrain launches CoreHD high-definition core imaging and logging
21 April 2010—Ingrain introduced CoreHD, its platform for 3D high-definition imaging of whole core from oil and gas wells. Ingrain’s CoreHD technology has advanced the oil and gas industry’s ability to use CT scanners to image and analyze core. Christine W. McEntee selected as AGU Executive Director 21 April 2010—The American Geophysical Union announced that Christine W. McEntee, executive vice president and chief executive officer of the American Institute of Architects, will be its new executive director. McEntee will join AGU in late August 2010. She will succeed Robert Van Hook, Transition Management Consulting, who has served as interim executive director since January 2009. McEntee was chosen from following an extensive international search. She will be only the third executive director in AGU's 90+ year history.
Geosoft named one of Canada's top 250 technology companies 19 April 2010—Geosoft has been named to this year's Branham 300, a listing of the top revenue performers in Canada's information technology industry. The company ranked 160 in the top 250 Canadian IT companies. The list is compiled annually by leading industry analyst firm Branham Group. This is the 10th consecutive year that Geosoft has ranked in the Branham300. UKOIL, Vanco and PETROCI complete drilling of first exploration well in block CI-401 offshore Cote d’Ivoire
19 April 2010—LUKOIL Overseas, Vanco and the state oil company PETROCI Holding have completed the drilling of the first exploration well in Block CI-401 on the Orca Prospect, located in the Gulf of Guinea, offshore the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire.
The Orca-1X-bis well penetrated the targeted objectives and discovered thin sandstone reservoirs. The well was drilled to a total depth of 4015 m below sea level in a water depth 1868 meters at a location 55 km south of the port of Bassam, using the Deepwater Pathfinder, a dynamically positioned fifth generation deepwater drillship. Oil samples were recovered from Campanian and Turonian sandstones during the course of drilling operations. The Orca-1X bis well has been plugged and temporarily abandoned.
The data obtained in the course of drilling significantly expanded the available information about the petroleum potential of the western part of the Tano-Ivoirian Basin and confirmed the availability of an active petroleum system, which is highly promising for future exploration in this area. More than 3000 km2 of 3D seismic data have been acquired in Block CI-401 and CI-101. Currently, the location of the first exploration well in Block CI-101 is being defined, with the well planned to be drilled in 2011.
EMGS secures prefunding from Statoil for Barents Sea campaign 19 April 2010—Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA has secured prefunding from Statoil to start an extensive multiclient 3D EM survey in the Barents Sea, ahead of Norway's 21st exploration licensing round. The program presently stands at more than 4000 km2, and could be expanded subject to additional industry commitments. EMGS's multiclient data library in the Barents Sea will upon completion of the upcoming campaign cover more than 14,000 km2 of 3D EM data.
Data acquisition will start shortly using the purpose-built vessel BOA Thalassa. Early delivery of 3D EM data will ensure that customers have ample time to apply knowledge gained from the EM surveys as a part of their bid preparation for the 21st licensing round in Norway. PETRONAS signs up to joint industry project (JIP) for low frequency seismic research 15 April 2010—Spectraseis announced that PETRONAS is the latest major oil and gas company to join the Low Frequency Seismic Partnership. PETRONAS has joined existing members—Cairn, Chevron, ExxonMobil, GDF Suez and Pemex—in the research and development of low-frequency seismic technologies as part of the three-year JIP. The news follows a number of recent low-frequency seismic milestones, including the completion of an extensive synchronous survey for Shell in Egypt, and the current acquisition of the most comprehensive LF data set to date over a gas storage facility in France, a project sponsored by the LFSP.
Geosoft releases CET grid analysis software, developed by The University of Western Australia’s Centre for Exploration Targeting 15 April 2010—Geosoft announced the availability of CET Grid Analysis software, developed by the Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET) within The University of Western Australia (UWA) and supported by Barrick Gold. CET Grid Analysis, designed for mineral exploration geophysicists and geologists looking for discontinuities within magnetic and gravity data, is being marketed and distributed by Geosoft as a new Oasis montaj plus third party extension.
CET Grid Analysis provides a step-by-step trend detection menu that offers texture analysis-based image enhancement, suitable for analyzing regions of subdued magnetic or gravity responses where texture analysis can first enhance the local data contrast, and discontinuity structure detection, useful in identifying linear discontinuities and edge detection.
The algorithms behind CET Grid Analysis were created by the Geophysics and Image Analysis Group at CET, part of the UWA’s School of Earth and Environment. CET is supported through a partnership between UWA, Curtin University of Technology, and the mineral exploration industry.
Spectrum's Big Wave expansion boosted by Obama lease proposal 14 April 2010—Spectrum commenced Phase 4 of the Big Wave multiclient seismic program in the eastern Gulf of Mexico just days after the US government. The new acquisition commenced on 4th April using the GGS Atlantic 2D seismic vessel. It comprises a key infill survey of over 12,000 km and is designed to generate a tighter grid for prospect level mapping. Phase 4 will increase Spectrum's Eastern Gulf of Mexico coverage to 65,000 km of long offset high-quality seismic data. This new infill acquisition coincides with Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar's announcement on the 31st March 2010 that the administration will expand oil and gas development and exploration on the US Outer Continental Shelf. The administration's calls for expanded development and production throughout the Gulf of Mexico, including resource-rich areas of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico which are covered by the Big Wave program but are currently under Congressional moratorium and closed to development. The Department of the Interior's Minerals Management Service (MMS) estimates that the Gulf of Mexico contains 36–41.5 billion barrels of undiscovered, economically recoverable oil and 161–207 trillion cubic feet of natural gas resources. Big Wave is adjacent to an area that already contains thousands of wells and hundreds of drilling platforms. The Big Wave multiclient program is across the richest single tract that would be open to drilling, The processing of the Big Wave data is being undertaken at Spectrum's regional data processing and imaging center in Houston. It will be processed to exactly match the specifications of previous Big Wave data, which were specifically customized to account for data variation across the Florida escarpment. Spectrum Geophysicists will be using a sequence which will include SRME and two passes of Radon demultiple as well as both prestack time and depth migration (Kirchhoff and Wave Equation). | 
