GEOSCIENCES
Gene Kliewer • Houston
Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA has signed a contract to apply seabed logging to a prospect offshore Libya. The exploration is scheduled to begin before year end. The initial contract value is $6 million, with extension options up to another $10 million.
“Offshore Libya is re-emerging as an important frontier for international oil and gas companies, and this contract is the first of its kind in this area,” says Terje Eidesmo, EMGS president and CEO. “Our client is highly respected in the industry, and we are pleased that EMGS has been chosen once again as a key enabler in the forefront of their strategic exploration activity. These factors reinforce our position as the market leader in the rapidly growing electromagnetics sector and confirm the role of seabed logging is an important exploration technology in the global search for hydrocarbons.”
Shell Todd Oil Services, operator, and partners Shell Exploration New Zealand, OMV, and Todd Energy have secured a new 213-sq-km (82-sq-mi) exploration permit PEP 38 1203 on the southeast edge of Maui gas field offshore New Zealand. As part of the permit work program, Shell Todd will reprocess and interpret 50 sq km (19 sq mi) of 3D seismic data covering part of the new permit. That data was acquired as part of an earlier Maui survey.
ODIM has landed a NOK 40-million ($7.5- million) contract from EMGS to supply handling systems for seabed logging. This is the second order for such equipment by EMGS from ODIM.
TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Co. ASA and Global Geo Services ASA have formed a joint venture to run a 28,000-km (17,398-mi), multi-client 2D seismic survey in the central Gulf of Mexico’s 181 South planning area. Pre-funded, the two companies will combine resources to complete the recordings in Jan. 2008. TGS will sell the results and GGS gets $3.1 million from TGS as part of the agreement.
The US Minerals Management Service plans a lease sale in the area for March 2009.
MEO Australia Ltd. subsidiary North West Shelf Exploration Pty. Ltd. has farmed-in to offshore permits operated by Cue Energy Resources Ltd. via a seismic acquisition option. MEO has contracted PGS seismic vesselM/V Orient Explorer to collect 300 sq km (116 sq mi) of new 3D data to go with existing seismic data over the permit area. The new data and some of the existing data will get an amplitude variation with offset study to further delineate the Zeus prospect and other expected leads.
Earlier 2D and 3D data identified a potential stratigraphic trap, the Zeus prospect, thought to be analogous to the Perseus gas field and Woodside’s Persephone-1 discovery on the east flank of the North Rankin gas field. MEO says Zeus is a Legendre shoreface/shallow marine sandstone play within the fault bounded northeast trending Keast Graben. The Legendre formation appears to thicken into the graben controlled by growth of basin margin syn-depositional faults, thinning onto northern and southern high blocks.
CGGVeritas has opened a new, dedicated processing and imaging center in Madrid for Repsol YPF. The new facility runs Geocluster processing software and will provide 2D and 3D time and depth processing for offshore and onshore data.
“This dedicated processing center fulfills simultaneously two important objectives – increasing data processing quality through a close interaction with exploration teams and bringing a technological edge to our exploration in North Africa and Middle East,” says Francisco Ortigosa, Repsol’s director of geophysics.
Knowledge Systems has patented a velocity modeling method that combines seismic data with basin modeling data to better identify prospects.
“Our velocity modeling methodology improves seismic data reliability by fully integrating basin geopressure modeling, geostatistical analysis, and seismic reprocessing,” says James Bridges, chairman and founder of Knowledge Systems.
The Knowledge Systems velocity model processing involves creation of an earth model using available well and/or seismic data. Data is calibrated, velocities along significant geologic surfaces are analyzed, and the model is then updated.
“The sophisticated geologic modeling integrates pore pressure, clay compaction, and compartment pressure modeling to produce synthetic velocities and pressure stratigraphy surfaces that better constrain seismic imaging,” says Bridges. “The pressures predicted by this updated model are converted to interval velocities and used to guide the reprocessing of the seismic data, which are then used to create an improved depth image.”
The process yields several key results, according to Knowledge Systems, including seismic data calibration to control well data, identification of stratigraphic pressure surfaces using existing velocity data and an improved velocity field to use in reprocessing seismic data as an input to tomographic inversion or data migration.