NORWEGIAN companies Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) and SeaBird Exploration have teamed up in a strategic co-operation agreement to further develop ocean bottom node survey solutions for deep water.
PGS’s CEO, Jon Erik Reinhardsen, said the agreement would allow the duo to provide a complete seismic offering covering deep-water application, areas with complex geology, and in areas with heavy infrastructure on the sea bottom.
SeaBird is considered to be the market leader for nodal seismic operation in deep waters, and the co-operation with PGS is expected to further strengthen that position.
The PGS CEO added that the use of nodes for 3D, 4C, and 4D seismic in deep waters to map challenging reservoirs will be particularly attractive, combined with PGS’s broadband GeoStreamer and GeoSource technology.
PGS will gain exclusive rights to offer SeaBird’s autonomous seabed recording technology at market terms in Brazil, which is a particularly important market given the huge exploration successes notched up lately, especially by state operator Petrobras.
PGS expects this agreement to further strengthen each of the two companies’ positions in the reservoir monitoring market, which has been the fastest growing segment of the seismic market.
SeaBird and PGS said they would look at the potential for further areas of co-operation, such as data processing and use of GeoStreamer, on Seabirds’ 2D vessels.
Meanwhile, Fugro GEOS has secured two large metocean (meteorological and oceanographic) measurement studies for Statoil in the Norwegian and North seas.
“The contracts highlight the importance of accurate metocean data at the design stage of development of offshore fields, and for life extension of existing fields,” said Richard Gaches, Fugro GEOS project manager.
“The KOBHeG contract is for five years, while the DoFoNAs contract involves measurements taking place over a 12-month period.”
The KOBHeG contract sees Fugro GEOS undertake a five-year metocean measurement programme with the associated routine data analyses for Statoil – mobilisation is expected next month.
Current profile, wave and seawater property data will be collected at five offshore fields in the northern North Sea: Kvitebjørn, Oseberg Sør, Brage, Heimdal, and Grane fields (collectively known as the KOBHeG project). Water depth at the different fields ranges from 100m to 190m.
Fugro GEOS will also be measuring a 12-month current dataset at Dompap, Fossekall and Asterix, and at several locations along the northern part of the Norwegian Sea Gas Infrastructure (NSGI) pipeline for the DoFoNAs project.
At these locations current measurements will support the planning of effective operations. This data will also be available in real-time.
Water depths vary from 350m at Dompap and Fossekall, two newly discovered fields located in the Norwegian Sea, slightly north of Norne, to 1,335m at Asterix, in the north Norwegian Sea.