Marine seismic surveying in the Arctic presents many challenges. Conducting streamer surveys in the presence of high ice concentrations eliminates the ability to safely tow a conventional GPS tail buoy. When conducting 2D surveys under these conditions…
E&P majors BP and Statoil presented their views on future exploration prospects in the Arctic. Meg Chesshyre reports. Representatives from BP and Statoil discussed both the challenges associated with and future plans for developing Arctic…
Declining reserves from mature fields worldwide, the ongoing demand for oil, and retreating sea ice have brought a flurry of exploration activity to the Arctic. The US Geological Survey estimates undiscovered Arctic petroleum resources of 90 billion bbls of oil and 1…
Maaskant Shipyards Stellendam, part of Damen Shipyards Group, has agreed a contract to build an additional seismic research support vessel for Rederij Groen. The latest contract follows last month’s order for two new seismic research support vessels (SRSVs)…
After a decade of R&D spanning the globe, a new class of marine seismic technology has now been commercially deployed. Nina Rach spoke with Chris Cunnell of Schlumberger. In an ideal world, a seismic survey would have a grid of sensors across the full area of interest…
Transboundary may head to committee The US Senate bill ratifying the US-Mexico Transboundary Hydrocarbon Agreement, S. 812, is reportedly on its way to a conference committee. The Senate’s version of the bill, passed last month (October)…
TGS, in partnership with BGP, has started acquisition of 2D seismic, gravity and magnetic multi-client surveys offshore Madagascar using the M/V Challenger. The surveys, MAJ-13 and MS-14, will add 7025 km of new 2D seismic data to extend and infill the existing 33…
CGG has been selected to carry out a large high-end seismic acquisition survey in the Gulf of Mexico on behalf of Pemex. The survey, in Mexican waters, is phase 5 in Pemex’s Centauro program, the largest ever proprietary 3D wide-azimuth program to be conducted worldwide…
Innovate or die. Newer and better tech is always needed in the oil & gas industry –even when companies aren’t exactly shouting to be first in line, OE asked: “How can technology innovation improve?” The offshore opportunity is vast…
Panoro Energy ASA commenced a 3D seismic acquisition program in the Dussafu block off Gabon. The work will be carried out by Polarcus and is planned to cover an area of approximately 1260 km2 in the outboard part of the Dussafu license. The…
Dolphin Geophysical, in association with Searcher Seismic, is pleased to announce it has commenced acquisition of a new 3300sq km 3D SHarp BroadBand multi-client seismic survey in the Maud Basin South area of the Norwegian Barents Sea. The…
Paris-based CGGVeritas has an agreement to purchase Fugro’s geoscience division, excluding the existing multi-client library and nodes businesses, for €1.2 billion (US$1.6 billion) cash. The gross amount of the transaction is €1.2 billion…
TGS has commenced acquisition of a 2D multi-client survey in the Chukchi Sea off the northwest coast of Alaska. The Chukchi Sea 2D 2013 survey covers about 8,000km and builds on the existing Chukchi Sea (CSR-06) survey acquired in 2006 in…
CGG announced that it has started the re-imaging of its entire Cornerstone multi-client dataset to create a 35,000sq km contiguous broadband PSDM volume, covering the Central North Sea. The existing conventional north-south, long-offset data…
TGS has started expansion of a 2D multi-client survey off northeast Greenland.The survey, NEG13, will enable customers to prepare for the announced Greenland Licensing Round in 2013/2014. Due to favorable ice conditions, TGS expects to acquire 4…