Business news for the week of 29 April 2009

Past news briefs

Paradigm to showcase emerging technologies at CPS/SEG Beijing 2009
20 April 2009—Paradigm will highlight a new generation of emerging technologies and workflows at the Chinese Petroleum Society (CPS) and Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Beijing 2009 Conference and Exposition to be held April 24–27, in Beijing, China.

“The CPS/SEG conference and exposition, with its theme ‘Geophysics’ Challenges, Opportunity, and Innovation,’ presents Paradigm with an exciting opportunity to showcase emerging technology solutions that highlight our focus on leading science and innovation,” said Richard Ward, Paradigm executive vice president in China. “The Paradigm continuum of integrated software products for geophysics, geology, petrophysics and engineering enable E&P teams to continually manage and enrich their asset knowledge under tight project timelines for greater return on their digital investments.”

At the conference, Paradigm will feature Paradigm Higher Order Workflow (H.O.W.) demonstrations in subsurface imaging, interpretation, and modeling. H.O.W. is the collective, knowledge-building process, enabled by the Paradigm solutions continuum, that builds upon prior and enriches subsequent workflows. Paradigm will showcase its latest H.O.W.-enabled reservoir geology solution, utilizing Paradigm SKUA 2009 technology. The reservoir geology workflow is completely encapsulated within a single source configuration tool for all aspects of reservoir modeling, enabling users to be more effective and accurate when implementing SKUA 2009.

Educational collaboration trains next generation of geoscientists in Russia
22 April 2009—Geosoft reported on a joint educational collaboration with Russia’s leading scientific university and geophysical technology firm AGT Systems. The partnership will equip the students of Perm State's geological faculty with applied knowledge of exploration technology and data-processing software.

Under the state-funded Innovation Universities program, AGT, Geosoft, and Perm State University have set up three teaching laboratories dedicated to training students on exploration technology and data-processing techniques. Each of the labs has over 20 computer stations installed with the Geosoft Oasis montaj Earth mapping platform, and Target geology software.

Geotrace announces strategic business alliance in Brazil
24 April 2009—Geotrace and GeoQuasar Energy Solutions have established a strategic business alliance in Brazil.

The demand for these types of services in Brazil has continued to expand, offering new opportunities as result of Petrobras and the success of international oil companies in the offshore presalt, as well as with recent and future National Petroleum Agency (ANP) bid rounds focusing more on onshore blocks. Geotrace has vast expertise that is multifaceted, allowing it to handle challenges of large deepwater offshore imaging projects and onshore 2D/3D data processing in complex areas.

Geotrace and GeoQuasar will share an office facility in the Barra Da Tijuca area of Rio de Janeiro, which will provide geophysical data processing, integrated field studies, integrated field studies, as well as geological and engineering services in Brazil.

The Brazil office is one of Geotrace’s international locations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The company also has a presence in Bogota, Buenos Aires, Port of Spain, and Maracaibo.

EMGS and Fugro enter into marine EM strategic alliance
24 April 2009—Electromagnetic Geoservices announced that it has entered into a global cooperation agreement with Fugro N.V. The agreement is in effect through 2011.

Under the terms of the agreement, Fugro will gain full access to EMGS’s marine EM methods for hydrocarbon exploration and production, and EMGS will gain access to Fugro’s worldwide marketing network and marine operating expertise. Both companies have also entered into a non-exclusive worldwide multiclient cooperation agreement, as well as a non-exclusive global technology licensing agreement.

Spectrum vessel shoots remaining blocks offshore India
28 April 2009—Spectrum has recommenced acquisition off the east coast of India on behalf of Reliance Industries Limited. Its GGS Atlantic 2D seismic vessel will complete 4400 km of the 2D program in blocks MNV-D4 and NEC-D9.

The RIL program commenced in the first half of 2008, but was suspended due to the onset of the monsoon season. Later in 2008, the GGS Atlantic acquired data off the west coast of India on behalf of GX Technology.

DOE to establish two Energy Frontier Research Centers at Argonne
28 April 2009—Argonne National Laboratory will be home to two of 46 new multimillion-dollar Energy Frontier Research Centers announced in conjunction with a speech delivered by U.S. President Barack Obama at the annual meeting of the National Academy of Sciences. The EFRCs, which will pursue advanced scientific research on energy, are being established by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science at universities, national laboratories, nonprofit organizations, and private firms across the nation.

The 46 EFRCs, to be funded at US$2–5 million per year each for a planned initial five-year period, were selected from a pool of some 260 applications received in response to a solicitation issued by the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science in 2008

Argonne’s EFRCs will focus on catalysts for efficient energy conversion and on electrical-storage technologies for a variety of applications. DOE awarded each center $19 million over five years.

EFRC researchers will take advantage of new capabilities in nanotechnology, high-intensity light sources, neutron scattering sources, supercomputing, and other advanced instrumentation, much of it developed with DOE Office of Science support over the past decade, in an effort to lay the scientific groundwork for fundamental advances in solar energy, biofuels, transportation, energy efficiency, electricity storage and transmission, clean coal and carbon capture and sequestration, and nuclear energy.

DOE awarded Argonne’s Institute for Atom-efficient Chemical Transformations $19 million over five years. The funding award will allow IACT to use a multidisciplinary approach to address key catalytic conversions that could improve the efficiency of producing fuels from coal and biomass. IACT will focus on advancing the science of catalysis for the efficient conversion of energy resources into usable forms.

DOE awarded Argonne’s Center for Electrical Energy Storage: Tailored Interfaces $19 million over five years. The director of CEES is Argonne Distinguished Fellow Michael Thackeray. CEES will investigate the scientific challenges that currently limit the progress and application of electrical energy storage technologies for energy generated by alternative renewable energy sources; and for transportation, medicine, defense, aerospace, telecommunications, and consumer applications.

New application aware software for E&P asset backup and recovery
29 April 2009—Enigma Data Solutions has developed an extension to its PARS (Project Archive and Retrieval System) suite that automates the backup of diverse application data from geotechnical, reservoir characterization, and office applications. Using PARS Backup, data managers can now confidently and efficiently restore multidisciplinary E&P projects in the event of data loss, system failure, or natural disasters.

With Enigma software, oil and gas companies can manage E&P asset backup for local and remote processing centers from a single server. Each application backup job is configured using a step-by-step wizard tailored to the application, so all of the required data and decision information for each project is preserved. Once each application’s backup is configured, the process is fully automated from this central administration point.