For all the talk of the intelligent oilfield and smart well-based operations, there are still areas of the reservoir where operators can obtain more knowledge about their subsea operations – in particular, activities further downhole and around the wellbore…
Back from the SEG annual meeting in San Antonio, Andrew McBarnet detects stirrings in the market for ocean bed seismic services.Ten years ago when the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) held its annual meeting in San Antonio, the event…
Mindful of Offshore Europe in Aberdeen this month, Andrew McBarnet explains why seismic companies keep coming back to the mainly mature offshore hydrocarbon province of northwest Europe.It's not the most elegant of sayings but 'there's life…
Andrew McBarnet detects a rebuilding of industry confidence in marine controlled source electromagnetic surveys after a troubled period for the operators of the technology.It is now almost exactly 10 years since a somewhat historic scientific…
The focus on Latin American deepwater activity naturally gravitates to the headline-grabbing pre-salt region offshore Brazil. But other areas in Latin American deep waters are worth noting, as Jennifer Pallanich explains.Petrobras' discovery…
At the EAGE annual meeting in Vienna Andrew McBarnet discerned a mood of surprising equanimity in the marine seismic community.Some titles are hard to live up to. So, even though the recent annual meeting of the European Association of Geoscientists…
As an indicator of the health of the oil & gas industry, attendance at May's Offshore Technology Conference in Houston suggests that recovery from the global recession is well underway. OE looks back over some of the sights and sounds of OTC 2011…
Multi-client specialist TGS took the marine seismic business by surprise last month with the purchase of Stingray Geophysical, a UK-based start up company focusing on seismic-based permanent reservoir monitoring (PRM). Andrew McBarnet discusses what prompted the move…
Ahead of the September launch of its second offshore licensing round, Uruguayan national oil company Ancap opened up a Houston data room in February in hopes of whetting IOC appetites. Jennifer Pallanich paid it an early visit.Uruguay Round II has fair bidding terms according to Santiago Ferro…
Andrew McBarnet tries to fathom the future of permanent seismic reservoir monitoring projects.A big pow-wow of industry specialists at the end of last month in Trondheim, Norway, was hoping to get to the bottom of the future prospects for…
Andrew McBarnet weighs up the value of research in the E&P marine geoscience sector and draws some surprising conclusions.We hear a great deal about the hard to find oil which needs to be discovered if the world's supply needs are to be met in the coming decades before…
Industry experts gathered in Houston late last year to discuss the future of floating LNG. Jennifer Pallanich joined them.A supply glut stemming from a wave of project sanctions between 2003 and 2005 followed by the North American shale revolution…
Drilling at the Peró and Ingá prospects in block BM-C-40 and the Santa Helena prospect in BM-C-31 has turned up hits for Brazilian relative newcomer OGX. The operator has been focusing on shallow water opportunities (OE April) and has exploratory…
Andrew McBarnet provides a commentary on seismic matters at the EAGE's Annual Meeting held in Barcelona last month.The European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE) can rarely be faulted for its choice of venue for its annual meetings…
Since Petrobras and its partners reported finding the large Tupi field in 2006, excitement has reigned over Brazil's pre-salt reserves. Opportunities exist, even in a changing regulatory environment: the Brazilian congress is poised to consider…