GEOSCIENCES

Gene Kliewer, Houston

Mergers & acquisitions

The trend in operator mergers and major production purchases has reached into the geophysical business. Recent weeks have brought a spate of acquisitions and mergers among offshore seismic companies. There also was a joint venture into using exploration technology for reservoir monitoring.

Offshore Hydrocarbon Mapping Plc. has conditionally acquired RDSP Acquisition Inc., the holding company for Rock Solid Images, Rock Solid Images AS of Norway, and RockSolid Images Sdn. Bhd. of Malaysia, for £10.4 million ($21 million). According to OHM, upon completion of the acquisition, the company will seek to develop methods of adding controlled source electromagnetic data to the Rock Solid mix of geologic models.

Rock Solid integrates rock physics with well and seismic data to interpret reservoir properties including lithology, porosity, and saturation using hardware and proprietary software.

“The acquisition of Rock Solid Images brings together two leaders in the reservoir imaging field,” says Dave Pratt, CEO of OHM. “We have been collaborating together for over a year on initiatives to integrate CSEM data into Rock Solid Images’ geologic models, and initial feasibility work carried out on a North Sea dataset has yielded exciting results. Together, we will be able to accelerate research and development in this area and intend to secure the ownership of intellectual property rights developed in this field. This acquisition, together with our strategic alliance with CGGVeritas, announced in July, will enable us to develop and implement leading technological solutions arising from the combination of CSEM and seismic data.”

CGGVeritas and OHM have entered into an agreement under which the companies will develop jointly the market for controlled source electromagnetic imaging (CSEM) and the integration opportunities between seismic and CSEM.

TGS-Nopec Geophysical Co. ASA and Wavefield Inseis ASA have agreed to merge, pending approval by shareholders, regulatory agencies, due diligence, and agreement upon a final merger plan.

“The combination of TGS and Wavefield Inseis brings together two complementary businesses with few overlapping activities,” says Claus Kampmann, TGS chairman. “The combined company will have an expanded product offering, larger geographic footprint, and broader customer base, including a balanced mix of major oil and gas companies, national oil companies, and independent oil and gas companies.”

“Together, TGS Wavefield will be able to accelerate innovative, next generation technologies such as 4C/4D seismic acquisition and electromagnetic (EM) technology,” says Anders Farestveit, Wavefield chairman. “We are confident that the combined company, with its strong growth and unique integration and synergy potential, will create shareholder value in excess of what the two companies could achieve individually.”

The resulting company, to be named TGS Wavefield, will have an integrated product list including a global data library composed of 2D and 3D seismic, gravity, magnetic, electromagnetic, well log, and regional integrated interpretation products. The combined entity will control a seismic acquisition fleet of six 3D and seven 2D vessels. The company will operate high-capacity seismic imaging centers and commercialize technologies for 4C/4D reservoir monitoring, electromagnetic, and seismic data processing. TGS Wavefield would provide “a stronger technical and financial platform to realize the value of long offset 2D, high capacity 3D, 4D, multi-azimuth, and wide-azimuth seismic technologies,” according to the company.

Petroleum Geo-Services ASA has agreed to acquire MTEM Ltd. for $275 million. MTEM, short for multi-transient electro-magnetic, has patented, cable-based EM technology. Because it is cable based, acquired data can be accessed in real time allowing it to be monitored for quality while on location.

“Through the acquisition of MTEM, PGS is accelerating its entry into the high-growth EM market,” says Sverre Strandenes, group president for data processing and technology. “Being the only player to offer a complete EM acquisition and processing technique both offshore and onshore, we believe the company to be a perfect fit within PGS. MTEM’s technology will help accelerate the development of our own towed EM technology.”

Petroleum Geo-Services ASA also has acquiredRoxicon Geogrids AS for $12 million. PGS says Roxicon will be the basis for a PGS MegaSurvey Center of Excellence in Stavanger. Roxicon specializes in multi-client seismic data merging for the North Sea.

Hydro Technology Ventures, Input/Output Inc., and Reservoir Innovation have formed a joint venture to develop, pilot test, and commercialize a full-wave seismic system for permanent monitoring of offshore reservoirs. The permanently installed seabed cables would collect 4D (time-lapse) seismic data in an effort to follow pressure and saturation changes plus fluid movement within the reservoir.

A pilot system is expected to be in place on a Hydro field site before the end of next year. Following successful pilot testing, the joint venture expects to make the system available to offshore operators worldwide.