A group comprised of 17 oil and gas companies, led by Statoil, has established a project for joint seismic acquisition in the southeastern Barents Sea. At the request of the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy (MPE), the industry…
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…
SeaBird Exploration Plc, in partnership with Acorn Geophysical Ltd, is due to start a 3D acuisition project in the Gulf of Guinea, west Africa. The program will cover about 1500sq km and will be acquired using the survey vessel Geo Pacific…
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…
TGS announced the acquisition of a 3D multi-client seismic survey, The Nerites 3D, which covers 8,300sq mi in the Great Australian Bight, offshore South Australia. The survey is scheduled to commence in early January 2014, and will cover…
TGS has started acquisition of a 3D multi-client seismic survey covering 2022sq km offshore Benin. The BR-13 survey will be TGS' second 3D survey in Benin. The 3D data will build upon current subsurface knowledge and provide improved imaging of deep Cretaceous and Tertiary strata…
Seabird Exploration has two shallow-water 3D seismic vessels working in Southeast Asia: Voyager Explorer (4x6000m streamers) and Aquila Explorer (4x8000m streamers), although the Aquila Explorer is currently equipped for 2D acquisition…
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…