Company Updates

Lukoil says “nyet” to FAR takeover

06/04/2021 Posted by Dale

Lukoil has abandoned takeover plans for Australia’s FAR Limited and thus exited its ambitions to participate in the Woodside-operated Sangomar project offshore Senegal.

The Russian company had offered FAR 2.2c per share in February after it had failed to become a participant in the RSSD project via the acquisition of Cairn Energy’s stake in the discovery -- which was scuppered by Woodside’s entry into the development.

FAR had sounded a note of caution over Lukoil’s proposal, which was not a legally binding offer and still subject to targeted and timely corporate due diligence by the Melbourne-based company.

The offer was also contingent on final Lukoil board approval, with no guaranteed that the proposal would have played out.

Colossal Canning Basin exploration program set for June

30/03/2021 Posted by Dale

Buru Energy is all set for a significant exploration program in the Canning Basin targeting 97 million barrels of oil which will entail exploration wells at Kurrajong and Rafael and ongoing development of the Ungani Oilfield.

The company announced that the contract for seismic as well as a three well drilling program is expected to be awarded within weeks.

Mineral Resources expands gas exploration footprint

30/03/2021 Posted by Dale

Mineral Resources has been awarded two highly prospective gas exploration permits in the Perth and Northern Carnarvon Basins.

The award is a boost to MRL’s strategy to secure its own natural gas supply to provide energy security for current and future MRL mining operations at lower-cost and with lower emissions to replace diesel use across the business.

MRL said it has committed to achieve Net Zero Emissions by 2050 and is presently developing the roadmap to achieve this target to be achieved.

The first Permit L20-4 is located in the highly prospective Perth Basin, host to several significant recent conventional gas discoveries.

Sercel and Kappa Offshore Solutions jointly launch PIKSEL

23/03/2021 Posted by Dale

Sercel and Kappa Offshore Solutions have announced the release of PIKSEL, a compact marine seismic solution specially designed for acquiring seismic data for high-resolution 3D imaging of targeted offshore areas.

PIKSEP, capitalizing on Sercel’s Sentinel® streamer technology, recognized for its robustness and accurate measurement capabilities, and Kappa Offshore Solutions’ expertise in equipment integration and hydrodynamic modeling, can acquire high- and ultra-high-precision seismic data using a new and highly efficient process, meeting the requirements of the market for high-resolution site surveys.

PIKSEL draws on the low noise performance of its Sentinel® streamer’s hydrophone design as well as an optimized rigging and handling system that minimizes vibration.

Searcher launches GeoClerk Platform Mining Edition

23/03/2021 Posted by Dale

Searcher has launched a mining edition of GeoClerk.

The company described GeoClerk as “an advanced geo-imagery search engine that intelligently extracts imagery and surrounding data from all types of unstructured documents, and then utilizes machine learning to classify them into geologically relevant categories.”

“The intuitive, web-based interface enables simple and complex querying to provide images in categories such as maps, core photos, imagery, cross-sections and tables, which are all linked back to the original source documents,” Searcher added.

GeoClerk works with government databases, mineral company websites, internal document libraries, and institutional subscriptions to identify, define and present images in geologically relevant categories to easily extract information from historic and uncategorised documents.

Blue Energy and Origin sign new long term gas supply deal

23/03/2021 Posted by Dale

Blue Energy and Origin sign new long term gas supply deal

Blue Energy Limited has announced that it has executed a non-binding Heads of Agreement (HOA) with Origin Energy Limited for the supply of up 300 PJ of gas at Wallumbilla over 10 years from Blue Energy’s Northern Bowen Basin ATP814 coal seam gas tenure.

This is the second such HOA executed by Blue Energy which facilitates North Bowen Basin gas to be delivered into the main East Coast domestic market to the south from Moranbah.

In early December Blue Energy and EnergyAustralia signed a similar agreement for the delivery of 100 PJ of gas from the North Bowen basin into Wallumbilla.

Shearwater awarded 4D survey by Equinor under new multi-year frame agreement

16/03/2021 Posted by Dale

Shearwater GeoServices has announced a new long-term frame agreement with Equinor for 4D seismic services on the Norwegian continental shelf.

The company said the agreement can also be applied for the UK continental shelf. Under the frame agreement, Shearwater has been awarded an initial survey over the Heidrun Field in the Norwegian North Sea.

Shearwater said it will allocate one of its high-end Isometrix vessels for the one-month Heidrun survey, which starts in Q2 2021. The award adds to a growing worldwide 4D order book and supports the company’s framework for optimizing vessel utilization.

“Shearwater’s commitment to geophysics and established leading 4D technology positions us well to deliver high quality time-lapse measurements for Equinor.

Cybersecurity Incident Involving Third Party Supplier

16/03/2021 Posted by Dale

CGG was recently informed of a cybersecurity incident on a server hosting Accellion software.

The company said the vulnerability that had exploited Accellion’s secure file transfer application (FTA), before they could find a corrective patch, was originally discovered in another Accellion customer environment.

At CGG, Accellion’s FTA was used on a separate server, isolated from production IT infrastructure.

“This standalone server had limited use within CGG and was not used to transfer or store personal or commercial sensitive information. There has been no operational or financial impact,” CGG said

CGG said it takes information security very seriously and will thoroughly investigate the incident in collaboration with Accellion and CGG’s external security partners, to document full details, and identify any potential areas to further reduce future risks.

Sercel Equips 3D Mega-Crew Survey in North Africa

16/03/2021 Posted by Dale

Sercel has announced that its “high-performance” equipment is being deployed on another 3D megacrew survey by a major North African geophysical company.

Sercel said the crew is operating with an 80,000-channel 508XT land acquisition system, complete with QuietSeis® digital sensors, and ten Nomad 90 Neo broadband vibrators in challenging desert terrain, but did not say which country activities were occurring in.

Sercel described its equipment as seamlessly integrated into the digital version of the 508XT, QuietSeis, the industry’s most advanced third-generation MEMS sensor, ensuring optimum data accuracy and stability.

“With its outstanding low-noise performance, it detects the weakest signals in a very large frequency bandwidth.

CGG Announces Q4 and Full Year 2020 Results

09/03/2021 Posted by Dale

CGG has released a solid operational performance in its fourth quarter results and positive net cash flow sustained by gradual recovery from COVID-19.

Commenting on the company’s full year and fourth quarter results, CGG CEO Sophie Zurquiyah said:

“In the particularly challenging year of 2020, which saw the collapse of the oil & gas market across the second and third quarters, we finished the year with solid fourth quarter operational performance. During 2020, we successfully completed our exit from the Acquisition business while continuing to advance our high-end Geoscience technologies for reservoir development and production.

“We also delivered our Multi-client surveys in the industry’s core mature sedimentary basins and released new products while reinforcing our market leadership in equipment. O