GEOSCIENCES

Volstead Surveyor is scheduled to conduct a vertical EM data acquisition program off Norway.

PetroMarker AS and Concedo ASA have signed a contract for EM (electromagnetic) data acquisition on the Norwegian continental shelf. TEMP-VEL, the proprietary marine vertical EM technology of PetroMarker, will be used to provide Concedo with the assessment data. Work was to be done with the newly mobilizedVolstad Surveyor.

The parties have agreed to keep location, duration, and price confidential.

OHM Rock Solid has won a Seismic Attribute and Facies Classification Study by INPEX for block 31 offshore Suriname. The project will incorporate seismic data from a 1,600 sq km (618 sq mi) 3D volume and log data acquired in a single well.

“Suriname is an important component of INPEX’s South American exploration portfolio and we are delighted to be working with OHM Rock Solid Images who have demonstrated an intimate knowledge of the petroleum systems of the conjugate margins of South America and Sub-Saharan Africa,” says Tetsumi Imamura, GM of INPEX’s Houston office.

Core handling specialists Kirk Petrophysics has secured a storage contract with BP Angola to support a drilling campaign in block 31, Angola.

Over the next seven years, Kirk Petrophysics will handle and store samples (core, cuttings, and mud) collected from approximately 40 wells.

Kirk Petrophysics will use its new facility southwest of London. Using a unique tracking and data management system, this core viewing facility allows unlimited access to view over 2,000 ft (610 m) of core at any one time, the company says.

New technology

Paradigm has made public its plan to deliver by mid-2011 a 64-bit Windows 7 version of its full solution suite of seismic interpretation, velocity modeling, seismic characterization, and well calibration capabilities, together with the Epos integration and interoperability framework.

This seismic-to-reservoir suite will offer a user interface identical to the current platform for those applications. The update will complement the existing Windows versions of Paradigm software for structural and reservoir modeling and engineering, formation evaluation, geological cross-section and correlation, and drilling engineering.

“The development of a comprehensive subsurface solution suite on Windows has been requested by many of Paradigm’s customers. Windows 7 provides a professional 64-bit workstation platform that allows us to deliver the high-performance interpretation capabilities, advanced graphics, and robust data handling facilities that are required for modern oil and gas subsurface projects,” says Duane Dopkin, executive vice president of Technology for Paradigm.

“For geoscientists, locating and extracting hydrocarbons requires manipulating massive amounts of structured and unstructured data to interpret and model sub-surface characteristics,” says Ali Ferling, managing director of Worldwide Oil and Gas Industries for Microsoft Corp. “Windows 7 provides exploration professionals with enhanced integration and data management capabilities to retrieve, integrate, analyze and share terabytes of information across multiple devices, applications and geographies, all in a secure computing environment.”

ION is bringing smart technology to the acquisition of marine seismic data. Intelligent Acquisition (IA) integrates a survey-wide approach to optimize operations in real time, the company says. IA combines the traditional towed streamers into a smart system that improves safety, efficiency, and data quality by predicting sea states and then dynamically positioning the spread.

This is accomplished using ION’s Orca command and control software with DigiFIN to control lateral cable positioning for tighter streamer cable positioning.

Expanding on the capabilities of its Processing & Imaging Center in Luanda, Angola, CGGVeritas has opened a new Geology & Geophysics (G&G) Center. The new center will provide training, interpretation, and reservoir modeling for prospect generation and field development projects.

The new G&G Center was launched in collaboration with Sonangol EP Exploration and will house more than 25 geoscientists from Angola and around the world to offer technical expertise including Hampson-Russell software and services.

The center will also host CGGVeritas University to offer a catalog of leadership and technology training courses in geology, geophysics, petrophysics, and reservoir engineering.

Sonangol says access to enhanced training and the ability to perform more reservoir projects in-country are critical to the development of the petroleum services industry in Angola.