Company Updates

Bunbury Energy takes off with South-West aerial survey

15/10/2019 Posted by Dale

Bunbury Energy has commenced a three-day aerial survey spanning 675km2 of the South West.

CGG Aviation will fly a light aircraft about 500 feet above the exploration area to assess subsurface geology in a project across the Shires of Capel, Dardanup and Donnybrook-Balingup and parts of Bunbury and Busselton.

This fulfils a long-standing aim of Bunbury Energy to investigate acreage in the South Perth Basin to reprocess data previously gathered in the 1950s and ‘60s with newer technologies.

Exploration has indicated that the area is not suited to hydraulic fracturing and the company is pursuing conventional gas reserves in a region where fracturing is not allowed under current state legislation.

Santos-ConocoPhillips’ $2.2 billion deal underpins a ‘bright gas future’

14/10/2019 Posted by Dale

Santos has snapped up a big basket of onshore and offshore ConocoPhillips assets in a $2.2 billion deal motivated by the Adelaide-headquartered oil and gas company’s big vision for future gas demand in Australia.

“We see a big future for gas,” Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher said as details of the purchase emerged.

“Through to 2040 it is the fastest-growing energy source and that’s why there’s such demand for our product across Asia.”

ConocoPhillips and Santos already have a long-standing partnership in the Northern Territory, the former as operator and major stake holder in the Darwin LNG plant, which gets feedstock from the Bayu-Undan offshore field in which Santos has an 11.5% share.

PGS welcomes a bumper northern hemisphere winter

07/10/2019 Posted by Dale

PGS says it is fully-booked for seven vessels in the fourth quarter of 2019. PGS has now committed to a MultiClient program in West Africa for the eighth active vessel. The program is expected to last more than 100 days and has strong industry funding. PGS said: “As a consequence, PGS will operate all eight active vessels also over the winter period and Sanco Swift has commenced transit from Norway to West Africa.

CGG Delivers Advanced 4D Images for BP Angola Survey in eight weeks

07/10/2019 Posted by Dale

CGG Subsurface Imaging, part of CGG’s Geoscience division, has delivered state-of-the-art broadband 4D seismic results ahead of schedule from BP Angola’s latest monitor survey offshore Angola. This achievement builds on previous 4D seismic processing projects undertaken for BP Angola. CGG said the enhanced imaging volumes from the Greater Plutonio development in the Lower Congo Basin were delivered four weeks early for this time-critical BP project.

Total and Santos given extension for Beehive decision

07/10/2019 Posted by Dale

Total and Santos have requested a one-month extension from Melbana Energy for the deadline date to decide whether to acquire a 40% interest in WA-488-P by agreeing to jointly fund drilling of the Beehive-1 exploration well. Last April the six-month option period for Total and Santos to farm into the Melbana-operated Beehive prospect and drill the first exploration well started. This followed approval of 3D seismic data from the Beehive 3D survey. The project was further de-risked in June this year after Melbana had confirmed key technical characteristics of Beehive-1.

Successful Dorado-3 Baxter flow test exceeds expectations

24/09/2019 Posted by Dale

Initial flow testing of the deeper Baxter reservoir of the Santos-operated Dorado-3 well has successfully exceeded expectations. Carnarvon Petroleum, which holds a 20% stake in Dorado, said the initial clean-up flow rate test over the Baxter Member was conducted over a 12-hour period with the flow rate constrained by the surface well equipment. The company said the flow rate achieved a maximum possible measured rate of approximately 48 million standard cubic feet (“MM scf”) per day of gas and 4,500 barrels (“bbls”) per day of associated condensate through a 60/64” choke.

DUG announces appointment of Laurence Letki as Chief Geophysicist

16/09/2019 Posted by Dale

DownUnder GeoSolutions (DUG) has announced the appointment of Laurence Letki as Chief Geophysicist. DUG described Ms Letki as “an invaluable and experienced team member”, who had been promoted from her position as Principal Geophysicist. Laurence is a highly respected industry professional, a leading expert on full waveform inversion, and a frequent speaker at oil and gas industry conferences around the globe.

Sercel launches GPR – ‘a game-changing new ocean bottom node’

16/09/2019 Posted by Dale

CGG has announced the launch by Sercel of GPR, a new Ocean Bottom Node (OBN). CGG said GPR “leverages the proven high performance of Sercel’s QuietSeis® broadband digital sensor technology to collect superior data for accurate seismic imaging compared to data collected by conventional sensors.” The company has jointly developed GPR in partnership with BGP.

Woodside invests in emerging technology for seismic data acquisition

16/09/2019 Posted by Dale

Woodside has signed a Shareholders Agreement with Perth-based Blue Ocean Monitoring Ltd (BOM) to invest in Blue Ocean Seismic Services Ltd (BOSS). Woodside in a statement that BOSS is developing an innovative solution that has the “potential to make ocean bottom seismic data acquisition cheaper and more accessible”. Seismic data is critical for understanding geological formations and the nature of hydrocarbon resources that may be contained within them. Current methods use remotely operated vehicles to place nodes on the ocean floor that capture and record soundwaves.

TGS and Schlumberger announce new 3D Multi-client Reimaging Project in Egyptian Red Sea

09/09/2019 Posted by Dale

TGS and Schlumberger have announced a new 3D seismic reimaging project in the Egyptian Red Sea. The project will comprise reimaging data from three overlapping seismic surveys totalling 3,600 km² that was acquired between 1999 and 2008 - the only available 3D data in this part of the Red Sea. It includes the integration of all legacy seismic and non-seismic data and will apply advanced imaging technologies to better define complex subsalt structures. The project, which is supported by industry prefunding, will be carried out by TGS and WesternGeco®, the geophysical services product line of Schlumberger.