Company Updates

Searcher announces Offshore Timor-Leste Data and Study Package

31/03/2020 Posted by Dale

Searcher has announced that it has reached a marketing and sales agreement with Timor-Leste’s Petroleum Authority, Autoridade Nacional Do Petroleo E Minerals (ANPM) for its Offshore Timor-Leste Data and Study Package.

Searcher, in collaboration with Discover Geoscience, said it was offering the industry rapid access to a comprehensive open-file seismic package “which will significantly expedite our clients ability to access a collection of organized seismic and well data to assist in the evaluation of the country’s second petroleum licensing round, announced on 3 October 2019.

“To further complement and leverage on the value of the subsurface database,...

Upstream PS appoints Cameron Wills as CEO

24/03/2020 Posted by Dale

Upstream Production Solutions has announced the appointment of Cameron Wills to the role of Chief Executive Officer.

Cameron joined the company in 2007 and has held executive leadership roles withUpstream PS since its acquisition from Oceaneering in 2014.

“Cameron has demonstrated a successful track record of being able to build sustainable client relationships and safely grow the business” said Geoff Jones, Managing Director, GREngineering.

“Cameron is ideally positioned to lead Upstream PS in the next phase of its growth.We thank Joe Corvetti for his dedication and contribution to Upstream PS and wish him well in his future endeavours.

“We also welcome Omesh Motiwalla and Kevin Craig to the Upstream PS Board.

CGG Announces Increase in Backlog to $537m

17/03/2020 Posted by Dale

CGG announced that its backlog, from its new profile, at the end of February 2020 stands at $537m, up 34% compared to last year.

Following CGG’s recently announced exit from the marine and land acquisition business, CGG has transformed into a People, Data and Technology company providing a comprehensive range of data, products, services and equipment that support the discovery and responsible management of the Earth’s natural resources.

CGG published its Q4 2019 financial results on March 6th highlighting a strong financial position at year-end 2019 with cash liquidity of $611m, net debt of $584m (before...

Santos opts out of Beehive farm-in option

10/03/2020 Posted by Dale

Santos has chosen not to farm into Melbana Energy's Beehive prospect in the Bonaparte Basin off Western Australia.

The Adelaide-headquartered oil and gas company had an option to acquire an 80% interest in the block in exchange for funding the drilling costs of an exploration well. However, The deadline to complete the farm-in expired on March 4.

"Santos therefore no longer has any right to acquire an interest in the Permit. As a result, Melbana now has a 100% unencumbered 100% interest in the Permit," Melbana said.

Last year Total also declined to farm into the block.

88 Energy begins drilling Charlie-1 well in Alaska

10/03/2020 Posted by Dale

88 Energy has begun drilling the eagerly anticipated Charlie-1 appraisal well in Alaska.

This brings to fruition a four-year target for 88 Energy, which had initially acquired 2D seismic over its Project Icewine acreage in 2016 and had targeted a drilling program for Charlie-1 ever since.

In the interim, 88 Energy reprocessed legacy 2D seismic in 2017, increased its acreage and shot 3D seismic in 2018 before farming down last year.

88 Energy managing director Dave Wall said, ‘’A prospect of this calibre in a frontier region requires significant time and effort to come to fruition and...

Shearwater enters deepwater OBS market with Gulf of Mexico award

10/03/2020 Posted by Dale

Shearwater GeoServices has announced the award of a major Ocean Bottom Seismic deepwater ROV project by TGS and partner in the Gulf of Mexico, USA.

This will be Shearwater’s first OBS ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) survey and will leverage the company’s strengths in source capabilities, operational scale and flexibility, Shearwater Geoservices said.

“Shearwater has an extensive track record of innovation and commercial success in Ocean Bottom Seismic.

Shearwater GeoServices wins Bulgaria Black Sea 3D survey

03/03/2020 Posted by Dale

Shearwater GeoServices has announced the award of a large towed streamer 3D acquisition and Fast Track processing project in the Black Sea by Total.

The contract award follows an active 2019 season in the Black Sea for Shearwater, the company said.

The survey covers 5,500 sq. km in the Han Asparuh block 1-21 using Flexisource triple source together with Fast Track processing enabled by Shearwater’s proprietary Reveal software. The three-month survey starts in the first quarter of this year and will be carried out by the Oceanic Vega.

“Shearwater has a strong working relationship with Total from the execution of multiple projects and we have through 2019 built a unique working experience in the Black Sea,” said Irene Waage Basili, the CEO of Shearwater GeoServices.

CGG completes exit from Land Data Acquisition

25/02/2020 Posted by Dale

CGG has announced that it had completed the wind-down and exit from its land seismic data acquisition business after completing its last land seismic acquisition contract in Tunisia.

Following on from the company’s recently announced exits from seabed and marine data acquisition, this milestone marks the successful completion of CGG’s strategy to exit the seismic data acquisition business, the company said.

To date, CGG still retains a minority shareholding in the ARGAS company operating in the Middle East.

Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO of CGG, said:

PGS digitalisation aims to reduce vessel operating costs and improve efficiency

25/02/2020 Posted by Dale

Marine geophysics company PGS said it was using its digital transformation process to accelerate strategy execution and had entered into an agreement with Cognite to expedite this process.

In cooperation with Cognite, PGS has launched two digitalization workstreams aiming at improving fleet performance; refining approaches to optimize fuel consumption and reducing maintenance cost by actively monitoring equipment via contextualized data.

“As part of our digital transformation journey we are partnering with Cognite in order to extract the full value of our vessel operations and assets.

CGG Wins Multi-Year Dedicated Center Contract Renewal for Total

18/02/2020 Posted by Dale

CGG announced that its Geoscience division has been awarded a contract renewal by Total, for the continued operation of its Dedicated Processing Center (DPC) in Pau, France. The new contract will run for five years starting in January 2020.

The two companies have been working in close collaboration at the DPC since 2006. Through this long-term relationship and CGG’s timely delivery of its innovative technologies and tailored workflows for a variety of environments around the world, the DPC has established a reputation for excellence, especially in 4D processing.

Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO, CGG, said: