Gene Kliewer • Houston
PEMEX signs $465-million seismic survey agreement
CGGVeritas has won a contract valued at about $465 million to acquire and process 75,000 sq km (28,958 sq mi) of 3D seismic in the Mexican sector of the Gulf of Mexico. The program is expected to begin this month and run through 2013.
Included in the contract is 3D and wide-azimuth acquisition, onboard and onshore imaging, plus gravity and magnetic acquisition and processing. CGGVeritas says the acquisition will be done by itsAlizé equipped with 12 Sercel Sentinel streamers.
Liberia takes ultra deepwater survey steps
TGS-NOPEC Geopohysical Co. has an agreement with the National Oil Co. of Liberia to acquire 15,000 km (9,321 mi) of long-offset 2D seismic, gravity, and magnetic data in waters to 4,000 m (13,123 ft) depth in anticipation of a possible licensing round.
This multi-client survey is to start in the fourth quarter of this year if industry interest is high enough. Recent discoveries in the Gulf of Guinea may have contributed to the survey plans.
Asia/Pacific to see first survey by AUV
In addition to the project off eastern India shown in the accompanying map, other work is scheduled further to the east.
In the Gulf of Thailand, the government has approved Coastal Energy Co.’s environmental impact assessment for a 2D seismic program over Ko Kra and Nakhon basins in the G5/43 block and also over the complete G5/50 block in the Gulf.
In Indonesia, Unocal Ganal Ltd., as survey partner for Gendalo and Maha fields in the Makassar Strait off East Kalimantan has contracted P.T. Fugro Indonesia to conduct what it says will be the first commercial ocean-bottom survey taken by autonomous underwater vehicle in Asia. Work is scheduled to be done from theGeo Prospector using the Echo Surveyor AUV. The AUV has a multibeam echosounder sidescan sonar and sub-bottom profiler. Data, from water depths ranging from 350 m (1,148 ft) to 1,900 m (6,234 ft) will be used for subsea facility design work on flowline, pipeline, and umbilical routes for production development, and also will seek geohazards.
Western Australia, CGGVeritas join for R&D
The Western Australian Energy Research Alliance, consisting of the University of Western Australia, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, and Curtin University of Technology, and CGGVeritas have agreed on a framework for joint identification of research, development, consultancy, education, and commercial applications of geophysical technologies.
Adriatic survey under way
Cairn Energy has the Bergen Oilfield ServicesAngler conducting a 3D survey in the Adriatic over the Joni-5 permit off southern Albania. The survey consists of 400 sq km (154 sq mi) of 3D from shore to waters of 1,000 m (3,281 ft) depth.
EMGS schedules work off Greenland
Cairn Energy has signed a $4-million contract with Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA for a 3D EM survey in Disko West off Greenland. That project should be under way now using the new BOAGalatea. The vessel was purpose-built to conduct 3D EM surveys.
EMGS also won a 3D EM survey contract from Total E&P Norge for acquisition and processing at Frigg field in the North Sea. EMGS said it would use theThalassa on this project. The purpose of the survey is to look for a better understanding of the reservoir in anticipation of decommissioning soon. The area covered totals 100 sq km (38.6 sq mi) of 100-m (328-ft) water depth using densely sampled, wide-azimuth 3D EM grids.
OMS takes four seismic support vessels
Offshore Marine Services UK has taken management and operation of four seismic support vessels for North Sea and West Africa operations.
The chase vessels, recently constructed in the Far East, are of similar design. Fitted with fuel carrying capacity of 1,000 metric tons (1,102 tons), each ship is approximately 50 m (164 ft) long with 225 sq m (2,422 sq ft) of deck space. The vessels are manned by an international crew of 11 with accommodation for up to 30 people and are equipped to trade globally.
“Operating our own vessels is a key part of our growth strategy for the coming five years,” says director Stewart MacRae. “We aim to emulate the success of the OMS Australia division which grew its fleet from nil to in excess of 40 in a relatively short time frame.”
OMS says it plans to add 10 more vessels to its fleet.
Spectrum adds more India reprocessing. India’s Directorate General of Hydrocarbons has contracted Spectrum for additional reprocessing, this time off the Andaman Islands. Spectrum is to reprocess 10,100 km (6,276 mi) of 2D line data and license the results to third parties. The licensing blocks are shown in orange and yellow, the black lines indicating lines acquired by Spectrum. This agreement follows the launch of the NELP VIII Licensing Round with eight blocks offshore Andaman Islands. Many of the lines proposed for reprocessing cross the NELP VIII area. Bids for NELP VIII were scheduled to close the middle of this month. In an earlier project, Spectrum reprocessed 12,000 km (7,456 mi) of seismic data taken of India’s western coast.
