Business news for the week of 26 April 2010News section front
Past news briefs
Seismic crew survey reports Spectrum and Hamilton Group join forces to develop 2D Multiclient surveys offshore South America 26 April 2010—Seismic services provider Spectrum and Hamilton Group's E&P Technology Group (EPTG) are planning 2D Multiclient surveys and basin analyses offshore South America combining Spectrum's multiclient survey expertise with basin analyses conducted by the Hamilton EPTG team, headed by Michael Hiner.
ffA signs multi-year software deployment agreement with Statoil
27 April 2010—ffA (Foster Findlay Associates Ltd) signed a six-year worldwide deployment agreement for its AVI software in Statoil. This agreement is associated with engineering expertise, software training and consultancy to support the deployment.
AVI (Advanced Volume Interpretation) is a 3D seismic analysis application based on ffA's SVI Pro and SEA 3D Pro software. In addition to all the functionality available in SVI Pro, AVI includes the suite of 3D seismic analysis capabilities that ffA has developed in collaboration with the oil company through an ongoing research and development program now entering its sixth year.
The agreement is aimed at ensuring that AVI is well integrated with other key applications in the oil company’s software portfolio. In addition, it also provides a framework under which ffA training and consultancy services can be accessed by geophysicists and geologists globally, to obtain maximum benefit from AVI.
PetroVR selected by MMS for outer continental shelf oil and gas leases
27 April 2010—The Minerals Management Service (MMS) of the US Department of the Interior announced that an indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (ID/IQ) contract has been awarded to Caesar Systems to provide PetroVR decision software and related advisory services for economic evaluation of Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) offshore oil and gas leases.
PetroVR will receive the torch from MONTCAR, an internal software solution that has been in use by the US MMS for more than three decades. In a recent fiscal year, the MMS evaluated approximately 800 offshore tracts having US $6 billion dollars in high bids using MONTCAR.
GeothermEx Sold
27 April 2010—Schlumberger acquired GeothermEx Inc., a California-based global provider of expert geothermal consulting services. The acquired team now operates as an integrated part of Schlumberger Geothermal Services, covering the full spectrum of resource exploration, development and production services.
Established in 1973, GeothermEx has developed numerous pioneering techniques for optimizing geothermal resources. Serving hundreds of geothermal power projects in more than 50 countries, GeothermEx specializes in geosciences, drilling, engineering, project development, reservoir management, and economic analysis.
More GPU routines for scientific research now available from numerical algorithms group
5 May 2010—Scientists in a wide array of disciplines—biochemistry, physics, geology, genomics, oceanography, etc.—who are interested in achieving top performance from GPUs in diverse applications using Monte Carlo simulations can now obtain an updated version of NAG numeric routines for GPUs from the Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG).
General purpose GPUs were originally used for 3D gaming acceleration on personal computers but have recently been at the forefront of numerical and scientific computation. Monte Carlo simulations are used in a wide array of technical computing applications in diverse areas such as finance, engineering simulations, drug discovery, scientific research, oil and gas exploration, and more.
NAG’s numerical routines for GPU computing are available to academic researchers involved in collaborative research with the NAG organization. Commercial organizations can also get access to NAG’s GPU code and programming services by contacting the NAG offices in their locale.
The latest release of NAG’s code for GPUs contains routines for Monte Carlo simulations—Quasi and Pseudo Random Number Generators, Brownian bridge, and associated statistical distributions.
TGS Expands multiclient seismic data library in Europe with New Barents Sea PSDM project
5 May 2010—TGS has launched a 2600 km2 3D prestack depth migration (PSDM) project over the Hoop Fault Complex, offshore Norway in the Barents Sea. This will be the first multiclient project of its kind in the European region. The project will be managed by the TGS processing center in Bedford, United Kingdom. Original data were acquired by the M/V Geo Barents and M/V Geo Pacific during the summer of 2009.
Interpretation previously done by TGS suggests favorable conditions for hydrocarbons in the project area. Final data will be available for the industry well before the application deadline for the 21st licensing round in Norway.
SMT opens office in Rio de Janeiro
5 May 2010—SMT opened a sales and support office in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The establishment of the Rio de Janeiro office follows the opening of SMT’s new offices in Abu Dhabi, Moscow, and Calgary making Rio de Janeiro the fourth regional office to open in the last two years.
Carlos Albano, area manager, Latin America, will be leading the new SMT team. Albano will oversee all aspects of sales and operations within Latin America. Prior to joining SMT, Albano worked as program manager for Schlumberger Russia, where he developed the project management office and project portfolios. |
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