Company Updates

Schlumberger, WesternGeco and DownUnder Geosolutions, in collaboration with GeoPartners Ltd, have been jointly awarded two contracts worth $4.5 million for 15,000km of reprocessed multi-client 2D seismic data in six areas around the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS). The areas to be surveyed include the Southwest Approaches, Northern Approaches and Bristol Channel, Cardigan Bay and the Celtic Sea, Morecambe Bay and East Irish Sea, the East Shetland Platform and North Western Britain,...

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CGG has announced the launch of TopSeis™, touted by the company as the “latest evolution in offshore broadband seismic, specifically designed to overcome the intrinsic lack of near offsets inherent in 3D towed-streamer seismic”. CGG said that, exacerbated by the use of progressively wider spreads to meet the industry’s quest for greater efficiency, the lack of near offsets leads to an inability to image shallow geological features, such as faults, gas pockets, channels and...

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PESA President Steve Mackie drew on the archives of exploration history in Australia to strike a note of optimism in sobering times at the opening of the ASEG-PESA-AIG Conference in Adelaide. Addressing delegates at the opening of the 25th conference at the Adelaide Convention Centre, Dr Mackie said the event theme, Interpreting the Past, Understanding the Future, was appropriate when it came to reflecting previous legacies of discoveries in Australia. “Going back 60-years the...

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MEO Australia is targeting early 2017 as a spud date for Cuba’s Block 9, taking its cue from Canada’s Sherritt International’s identifications in adjacent Bock 10, as it ponders a high impact exploration well in New Zealand and seeks to complete farm out processes in Australia. The Melbourne-based explorer said following assessment of the Lower Sheet play, continuing assessment of the remaining two plays, the Upper Sheet and Shallow Tertiary plays, was progressing as planned....

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NOPSEMA has granted BP an extension to lodge a third and final environmental plan to drill the Stromlo-1 well in the Great Australian Bight. The submission is now expected to be lodged by August 31 and BP now faces a race against time to begin drilling the Stromlo-1 well in the calmer seas of summer following assessment of the supermajor’s game plan and safeguards by the offshore regulator. BP’s plan will have to be watertight as the $1 billion exploration program it hopes to expedite...

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Woodside has bought ConocoPhillips’ exploration stake in Senegal, acquiring a 35% stake in the SNE and FAN deepwater oil discoveries and the option of becoming operator, for US$430 million. The deal gives the Perth-based company exposure to a potential 560 million bbl oil discovery, which Woodside appears to have picked up for a significant discount at about US$2.30 per barrel to the US$7 per barrel valuation of RBC Capital Markets. Melbourne-based FAR Energy, which holds a 15% stake in...

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CGG Processing Manager Singapore, Joe Zhou, has won the EAGE 2016 Guido Bonarelli Award in recognition of the best oral presentation for his paper entitled ‘Unlocking the full potential of broadband data with advanced processing technology, a case study from NWS Australia’. The paper was co-authored with Peter Chia from Shell Australia and Jingyu Li, Henry Ng, Sergey Birdus, Keat Huat Teng, Phan Ying Peng, Jason Sun and He Yi from CGG and presented during the 77th EAGE Conference &...

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