Business news for the week of 24 May 2010

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Seismic crew survey reports

SeaBird Exploration signs contract for acquisition of a large-scale ocean bottom node seismic

18 May 2010—SeaBird Exploration announced the execution of signed contract with Chevron North Sea Limited (the operator) for the acquisition of a large-scale ocean bottom node seismic survey West of Shetland at approximately 1200 m water depth. The purpose of this full azimuth 4C/3D node survey is to acquire multicomponent data for improved reservoir imaging and characterization. The survey will be conducted with the survey vessel Hugin Explorer with a capacity of 750 proprietary autonomous CASE Abyss nodes onboard and the source vessel Kondor Explorer which is planned to cover a dense full-azimuth shooting program of about 250 km². The mobilization was commenced immediately after the recent completion of the node survey offshore ultra-deepwater Nigeria. The survey will start end of May 2010 with an expected duration of approximately three months, including mobilization and demobilization.

Tendeka successfully completes first reservoir monitoring installation offshore Congo

20 May 2010—Tendeka completed the first installation of an optical reservoir monitoring system in an offshore platform well for a major operator in West Africa.

The monitoring solution consisted of Tendeka’s Sentinel distributed temperature sensing (DTS) system combined with four SmartCell optical pressure and temperature gauges. When integrated with DTS, the gauges provide a complete real-time pressure and temperature profile of the reservoir, enabling the operator to optimize well performance.

Data are continuously available in real time, providing enhanced understanding of flow contribution and immediate detection of water breakthrough.

The 900 m horizontal openhole was completed using 6 5/8” sand screens with external swell packers for zonal isolation of the three reservoir sections. The upper completion conveys the monitoring system on a 2 3/8” stinger inside the sand screens. The stinger is suspended from an ESP system and a high set production packer. DTS provides monitoring across the whole reservoir section whilst each of the three zones has a single point pressure gauge. A fourth pressure gauge is located above the reservoir to provide comingled pressure and temperature data.

Schlumberger inaugurates WesternGeco technology center in Norway

20 May 2010—Schlumberger inaugurated a new technology facility in Norway. Terje Riis-Johansen, Minister of Petroleum and Energy for Norway, and Andrew Gould, chairman and chief executive officer of Schlumberger, officiated at the opening ceremony attended by more than 80 guests from oil companies, universities, local and national government, key suppliers, and Schlumberger representatives.

The WesternGeco Oslo Technology Center (WOTC) offers a collaborative environment where clients can work alongside WesternGeco and Schlumberger technical experts to help solve key exploration challenges worldwide. The newly relocated center seeks to foster collaboration for the development of new and integrated technologies and to enhance existing products and services according to client needs. WOTC now houses engineering, testing, integration and support facilities for all the organization’s proprietary seismic and electromagnetics acquisition technology.

The 400-person capacity center features a marine testing laboratory that contains a complete vessel instrument room, which can be configured to mimic the exact hardware onboard every WesternGeco seismic vessel in service. WOTC also includes an interactive operations center where a dedicated team of experts are available 24/7 to support the marine fleet worldwide. Additionally, the center features training facilities for field operations and state-of-the-art land seismic and electromagnetics laboratories.

Paradigm appoints James Lamb as executive vice president of sales operations

20 May 2010—Paradigm appointed James Lamb as executive vice president of sales operations. In this role, Lamb will direct global sales efforts and lead customer support and sales marketing initiatives of Paradigm’s technology and data management platform worldwide. He will directly report to Eldad Weiss, Paradigm’s chief executive officer. The appointment is effective immediately.

TGS wide azimuth project update

21 May 2010—TGS has resumed seismic acquisition of the Justice Wide Azimuth (WAZ) survey in the Gulf of Mexico on 20 May 2010.

The project's progress was previously delayed due to the Deepwater Horizon drilling accident, and the subsequent oil spill and containment efforts in the Gulf of Mexico.

During the three-week delay, TGS continued to acquire WAZ multiclient data in an area adjacent to existing TGS WAZ coverage in the Gulf of Mexico. The WAZ crew is expected to continue acquisition on the Justice project until the survey area is completed which is estimated for July 2010.