First Break June 2019

VO L U M E 3 7 I I S S U E 6 I J U N E 2 019

SPECIAL TOPIC

Embracing Change — Creativity For The Future TECHNICAL ARTICLES Mapping soil salinity using inversion modelling Seismic time reversal mirror experiment INDUSTRY NEWS TGS buys Spectrum to create multi-client giant

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FIRST BREAK® An EAGE Publication

CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD Peter Rowbotham (Peter.Rowbotham@apachecorp.com) EDITOR Damian Arnold (editorfb@eage.org) MEMBERS, EDITORIAL BOARD • Paul Binns, consultant (pebinns@btinternet.com) • Patrick Corbett, Heriot-Watt University (patrick_corbett@pet.hw.ac.uk) • Tom Davis, Colorado School of Mines (tdavis@mines.edu) • Anthony Day, PGS (anthony.day@pgs.com) • Peter Dromgoole, Statoil UK (pdrum@statoil.com) • Rutger Gras, Oranje-Nassau Energy (gras@onebv.com) • Hamidreza Hamdi, University of Calgary (hhamdi@ucalgary.ca) • Ed Kragh, Schlumberger Cambridge Research (edkragh@slb.com) • John Reynolds, Reynolds International (jmr@reynolds-international.co.uk) • James Rickett, Schlumberger (jrickett@slb.com) • Dave Stewart, Dave Stewart Geoconsulting Ltd (djstewart.dave@gmail.com) • Femke Vossepoel, Delft University of Technology (f.c.vossepoel@tudelft.nl) MEDIA PRODUCTION MANAGER Thomas Beentje (tbe@eage.org) ACCOUNT MANAGER ADVERTISING Keziah Starrenburg (ksg@eage.org) ACCOUNT MANAGER SUBSCRIPTIONS Jack McClean (jmn@eage.org) PRODUCTION Saskia Nota (layout@eage.org) Ivana Geurts (layout@eage.org) EAGE EUROPE OFFICE PO Box 59 3990 DB Houten The Netherlands • +31 88 995 5055 • eage@eage.org • www.eage.org EAGE RUSSIA & CIS OFFICE EAGE Russia & CIS Office EAGE Geomodel LLC 19 Leninsky Prospekt 119071, Moscow, Russia • +7 495 640 2008 • moscow@eage.org • www.eage.ru EAGE MIDDLE EAST OFFICE EAGE Middle East FZ-LLC Dubai Knowledge Village Block 13 Office F-25 PO Box 501711 Dubai, United Arab Emirates • +971 4 369 3897 • middle_east@eage.org • www.eage.org EAGE ASIA PACIFIC OFFICE UOA Centre Office Suite 19-15-3A No. 19, Jalan Pinang 50450 Kuala Lumpur Malaysia • +60 3 272 201 40 • asiapacific@eage.org • www.eage.org

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Using geophysics and geochemistry to find life in the solar system

Editorial Contents 3

EAGE News

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Crosstalk

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Industry News

Technical Articles

35 Potential to map soil salinity using inversion modelling of EM38 sensor data Maria Catarina Paz, Mohammad Farzamian, Fernando Monteiro Santos, Maria Conceição Gonçalves, Ana Marta Paz, Nádia Luísa Castanheira and John Triantafilis 41 Seismic time reversal mirror experiment

Evgeny Landa, Adi Yurman and Rob Jenneskens

Special Topic: Embracing Change - Creativity for the Future

47 Selecting seismically safe formations for salt water disposal in the Delaware basin

Zuzana Jechumtálová, Denis Anikiev and Leo Eisner 51 Emerging technologies applicable to increasing reservoir recovery factors Thomas Davis, Malcolm Wilson, Scott Wehner, John Vozniak, Paul Trost and Tom Bratton 57 An innovative approach to automation for velocity model building

Tony Martin and Marcus Bell 67 Review of statistical probabilities from technologies used for pre-drill hydrocarbon prediction

Kim Gunn Maver 75

Hunting for Africa’s new transform play trends Karyna Rodriguez and Neil Hodgson

79 Using geophysics and geochemistry to find life in the solar system

Mark A. Sephton 82 Calendar

EAGE LATIN AMERICA OFFICE Carrera 14 No 97-63 Piso 5 Bogotá, Colombia • +57 1 4232948 • americas@eage.org • www.eage.org EAGE MEMBERS CHANGE OF ADDRESS NOTIFICATION Send to: EAGE Membership Dept at EAGE Office (address above) FIRST BREAK ON THE WEB www.firstbreak.org ISSN 0263-5046 (print) / ISSN 1365-2397 (online)

cover: Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. London will host the EAGE Annual 81st Conference and Exhibition this month.

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European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers

Board 2018-2019

Michael Pöppelreiter Vi c e-President

Jean-Jacques Biteau President

Near Surface Geoscience Division George Apostolopoulos Chair Alireza Malehmir Vice-Chair Micki Allen Contact Officer EEGS-NA Riyadh Al-Saad O&G Liaison Xavier Garcia Committee Member Peter Bergmann Technical Programme Representative Esther Bloem Technical Programme Representative Albert Casas Membership Officer Ranajit Ghose Editor in Chief Near Surface Geophysics Musa Manzi Committee Member Andreas Kathage Liaison Officer First Break Koya Suto Liaison Asia Pacific Musa Manzi Committee Member Jiangha Xia Liaison China

Colin MacBeth Education Officer

Oil & Gas Geoscience Division

Caroline Le Turdu Membership and Cooperation Officer

Ingrid Magnus Publications Officer

Everhard Muijzert Secretary-Treasurer

Caroline Lowrey Chair Michael Peter Suess Vice-Chair John Brittan Past chair Rick Donselaar TP Representative (Geology) Xavier Garcia NSGD Liaison Julianne Heiland TP Representative (Geomechanics) Francesco Perrone YP Liaison Ann Muggeridge IOR Committee Liasion Aart-Jan van Wijngaarden Technical Programme Officer Martin Widmaier TP Representative (Geophysics) Michael Zhdanov NSGD Liaison Philip Ringrose Editor-in-chief (Petroleum Geoscience) Tijmen-Jan Moser Editor-in-chief (Geophysical Prospecting) Conor Ryan Resource Evaluation Committee liaison Sebastian Geiger Resource Evaluation Committee liaison

SUBSCRIPTIONS First Break is published monthly. It is free to EAGE members. The membership fee of EAGE is € 50.00 a year (including First Break, EarthDoc (EAGE’s geoscience database), Learning Geoscience (EAGE’s Education website) and online access to a scientific journal.

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Every subscription includes a monthly hard copy and online access to the full First Break archive for the requested number of online users.

Aart-Jan van Wijngaarden Technical Programme Officer

George Apostolopoulos Chair Near Surface Geoscience Division

Caroline Jane Lowrey Chair Oil & Gas Geoscience Division

Orders for current subscriptions and back issues should be sent to EAGE Publications BV, Journal Subscriptions, PO Box 59, 3990 DB, Houten, The Netherlands. Tel: +31 (0)88 9955055, E-mail: subscriptions@eage.org, www.firstbreak.org.

First Break is published by EAGE Publications BV, The Netherlands.

However, responsibility for the opinions given and the statements made rests with the authors.

COPYRIGHT & PHOTOCOPYING © 2018 EAGE All rights reserved. First Break or any part thereof may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transcribed in any form or by any means, electronically or mechanically, including photocopying and recording, ­without the prior written permission of the Publisher.

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HIGHLIGHTS

EAGE MEMBERS

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Shale reserves development discussed at Moscow workshop

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Lars Sønneland 1945 - 2019

Collaboration is key to Aberdeen LC success

Bidding you au revoir for now Jean-Jacques Biteau looks back on two eventful years as EAGE president, a period when the Association has had to adapt to difficult economic times and prepare for the energy transition ahead.

Jean-Jacques Biteau: tireless advocate for EAGE.

To serve as president of EAGE for two years has been my exceptional, if unexpected, privilege. So I begin this review

by expressing my sincere appreciation for the support I have received over this period. This includes my colleagues on the Board, our full-time staff worldwide and, above all, you the members, especially those who volunteer their time for the benefit of our professional community.

It has been an inspiring experience to help steer our Association through some strong headwinds to the relative calm of today. When I started in 2017 we were grappling with the impact of a persistent recession in the oil services industry affecting many of our members.

The task then was to somehow stabilize our financial situation facing declining revenues; continue to make available the exceptional level of service our members expect; and at the same time position ourselves for future growth.

I believe I am handing over to Michael Poppelreiter, my successor as president, an Association which is in better and hopefully more sustainable financial shape and has a strategy to grow the global membership in all continents and disciplines and the services that this will require.

In our recent Board discussions on EAGE’s Vision 2025 and generally over the last five years, we see the challenges and opportunities of energy transition, FIRST

mitigating the impact of climate change and protecting the environment as the themes likely to preoccupy the future for our professions, and more deeply our children. This applies to many of our members in the Oil and Gas Division and possibly more in the Near Surface Division.

Further consultation is still to be completed with various dedicated committees, interest groups and the wider membership, before we can conclude a definitive and strong enough strategy.

But, in anticipation, we have been putting on more events addressing new topics with geoscience relevance. Carbon capture and storage, sustainable oil and gas exploration and production, geothermal energy and smart cities are examples. We are also supporting a number of green initiatives including the reduction of our own office environmental footprint.

Students are being invited to participate in the Minus CO2 competition this year with the results of the competition presented in our London annual conference.

Retooling for the increasing digitalization of many operations involving our geoscientists and engineers is now also on the agenda. I am conscious that with all these developments the traditional distinctions between disciplines and speBREAK

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EAGE NEWS

cializations in the EAGE organizational structure may need to be reconfigured.

This has already been recognized by the introduction of two new communities Decarbonization and Energy Transition and Artificial Intelligence.

There is a lot more work to be done.

For example, there may be scope for some rethinking of our Board structure to make it more efficient, probably operating on a more corporate model than now.

This was advocated by Chris Ward when he was president in 2016-17. It would be presumptuous of me to anticipate how further discussion on this might pan out,

started my career a there 42 years ago as a hydrogeologist). This allowed me to see for myself how EAGE’s portfolio of events and services has a great deal of relevance. I believe that further collaborations in these areas will prove mutually beneficial for members in the region and the Association.

For support of my travels on behalf of EAGE, which also included meetings in China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Abu Dhabi, USA and numerous European venues, I must express enormous gratitude to the generosity of my employer Total (with

‘Our shared goal has been enhancing the value of EAGE as an unrivalled professional community.’ but I am confident that future Boards will come up with an appropriate solution that members can endorse.

I have personally advocated for more visibility of Board members. More involvement in the planning of events and indeed attendance could certainly be mutually beneficial even if it takes time, availability and support from professional communities and companies. Event organizing teams could take advantage of additional expert input informed by EAGE strategy objectives, and Board members would be exposed more directly to a vital part of EAGE’s activities.

Admittedly, this ideal is subject to practical issues in terms of how much more of Board members’ time we can call upon in addition to their current commitments.

Meantime I can look back on a very positive experience as president of the Association. Selfishly I would say the highlight for me has been the opportunity to personally connect during four years (as vice-president and then as president) with so many members around the world and learn on location how we can best support their unique professional needs.

I am particularly proud of the footprint we have been able to establish in Africa, including North Africa, where I spent a significant portion of my career.

I was able to attend events in Kenya, Nigeria, Mozambique, Angola, Uganda and Algeria (a great return for me as I 4

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whom I spent 40 years!). I interpret their unconditional sponsorship as validation of the value of our professions, and the need to sustain them in the future.

Being a geologist and not just a petroleum geologist at heart, I guess I would have to mention that one of the most pleasing developments over the past two years has been the increased emphasis on geology in the Annual conference programme. We have now struck a balance of 25% of presentations, up from nearer 10%, which makes more sense for an Association with a multi-disciplinary approach to geoscience as we propose in our banner. Over time more dedicated sessions to other non-geophysical topics will also reflect changes in science and society.

The greatest lesson from my term as president is that it is easy to underestimate the amount of thought, planning and operational excellence that goes into the Association’s activities. This was perhaps best illustrated by the way our organizing team coped with the loss of power during the Paris Annual (particulary felt by me as it was in my homeland…). We received nothing but praise for how the show was kept on the road with minimal interruption to the technical programme, thanks to our Board members (Walter Rietveld in particular) and staff.

More generally we probably do not sufficiently acknowledge the impressive 2019

scope of the Association’s operations and the commitment required to keep everything running smoothly. At any given time we have ongoing work, among other things, on conferences, workshops, publications, membership admin, online education, our website, bookshop sales, local chapter and special interest communities liaison, various funding initiatives, student activities and of late an important initiative in the European Community.

There are new initiatives all the time too. Very recently we have introduced the Membership Benefit Programme, a kind of ‘frequent flier’ scheme which allows significant discounts on events depending on the loyalty of members to EAGE. Caroline Le Turdu, our membership and cooperation officer, must take credit for this idea.

In my time one continuing saga has been the struggle at HQ to change and implement a better computer management system. I am happy to report we are more or less there now, with EarthDoc probably the final challenge. My point is that throughout all the vicissitudes, inconvenience to members was kept to a minimum, and that is a tribute to the dedication of our staff.

As a Board we play a supervisory role in the Association’s services.

A major responsibility here has been keeping a close check on our finances.

I am very happy to say that EAGE can report a slightly positive result for 201819. This has not been an easy exercise, but the office leadership has managed the necessary economies in terms of personnel and activities that we can undertake with the minimum of fuss. With a more sustainable organization going forward, there has been a significant pick-up in staff morale.

In closing I would just reiterate how fortunate I have been to work with so many talented and dedicated people, in the process meeting with many of you in different environments around the world.

Our shared goal has been enhancing the value of EAGE as an unrivalled professional community. I hope that I have done at least a little to help the cause, and have every intention of continuing to support the Association in other capacities in the future. So, ‘mes amis, ma famille’, this is very much only ‘au revoir’.

EAGE NEWS

HPC workshop series in Dubai to discuss impact of 4IR The role of high performance computing (HPC) in the ongoing digital revolution will be the focus of a fourth EAGE conference to be held in Dubai on 7-9 October 2019.

Combining keynotes from industry experts, educational short courses and leading-edge technical talks as well as networking opportunities during the social evenings, this event has the formula for success.

HPC has become an inseparable part of the energy business, continuously helping shape the industry by cutting costs and maximizing productivity, while manipulating data to make better business decisions. The importance of HPC has been further amplified as we experience the so called fourth industrial revolution (4IR). The overlap and cross pollination opportunities between data analytics, big data, AI, simulation and HPC will be the underlying theme of the workshop.

Upstream simulation and modelling are the principal mechanisms for the accurate location of hydrocarbons and their optimal production. The reliance on data for making better business decisions at a lower cost is key. Seismic data are explored using traditional imaging algorithms such as reverse time migration (RTM), full waveform inversion (FWI) and electromagnetic modelling (EM) to illuminate the hidden subsurface of the

earth and reservoir simulation is used to optimally produce fields and predict the time evolution of assets. Both are highly compute-intensive activities, which push the leading edge of HPC storage, interconnect and calculation.

HPC for the industry is evolving on several fronts. Changes in the underlying hardware are evident with the advent of coprocessing technologies, and manycore CPUs are challenging practitioners to develop new algorithms and port old ones to reap the most performance from modern hardware. The explosion of data and the recent rapid development in machine learning (ML) are leading to non-traditional ways of interpreting seismic and reservoir data. The emergence of significantly faster reservoir simulation technology is breathing new life into multi-resolution and uncertainty quantification workflows.

The ability to create and mine these data relies on the optimal utilization of supercomputers. This is the result of various synergies between industries, companies, departments and, most importantly, people. HPC IT departments (or even HPC cloud solution providers) are focused on minimizing turnaround times for various workloads, but also deploy the various compute architectures in a cost competitive fashion while adapting to the fast-paced innovation in the semi-conductor industry.

Research groups and software application teams in both academia and industry are developing new algorithms while adapting and optimizing existing or new production frameworks to the latest parallel programming model, language and architecture.

The workshop aims to bring together experts to better understand state-of-the-art key applications employed in the upstream industry and anticipate what potential will be enabled by increased computational power. In addition to technical presentations, participants have the chance to hear keynotes from industry heavyweights from around the globe, including: Robert Sutor, vice president, IBM Q Strategy and Ecosystem at IBM Research; David Keyes, professor of applied mathematics and computational science and the director of the Extreme Computing Research Center at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST); Philippe Thierry, principal engineer, Intel Corporation; and Felix Herrmann, professor, earth and atmospheric sciences; computational science & engineering, and electrical & computer engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.

The programme will also include short courses on topics such as Quantum Computing 101 and Technology Evaluation and Benchmarking of HPC Systems. Early registration will close on 7 September 2019.

EAGE Education Calendar 14 JUNE

EAGE EDUCATION TOUR 11

WUHAN, CHINA

19 JUN - 2 JUL

EDUCATION DAYS BEIJING: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

BEIJING, CHINA

20 JUN

WEBINAR ‘THE CONSTRUCTION OF A RELIABLE, HIGH-RESOLUTION SUBSURFACE MODEL USING FWI: A SULTANATE OF OMAN CASE STUDY’

ONLINE

24 JUN - 2 JUL

EDUCATION DAYS KUALA LUMPUR: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA

26 JUN

EAGE EDUCATION TOUR 11

BEIJING, CHINA

27 JUN - 9 JUL

EDUCATION DAYS PERTH: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

PERTH, AUSTRALIA

1 JUL

WEBINAR ‘SEISMIC AVO: WHEN DATA MEETS THEORY’

ONLINE

26-30 AUG

EDUCATION DAYS RIO DE JANEIRO: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

17-20 SEP

EDUCATION DAYS LONDON: MULTIPLE SHORT COURSES PROGRAMME

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION PLEASE VISIT WWW.EAGE.ORG AND WWW.LEARNINGGEOSCIENCE.ORG.

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Workshop explores challenges of integrating seismic data for reservoir modelling Using seismic data for reservoir model infilling or update can be a challenging task. It was the subject of a workshop at last year’s EAGE Annual Conference to evaluate the existing solutions and discuss the way forward. Thierry ColÊou (CGG), Thierry Cadoret (Total), Pierre Thore (Total), and Mathias Alerini (Equinor) describe the outcome.

Through multi-disciplinary discussions between geophysicists, geologists and reservoir engineers, the workshop addressed issues such as (i) the purpose and value of seismic data in the reservoir modelling exercise, (ii) the possible seismic inputs with their quality assessment, and (iii) the different modelling techniques available or to be developed. Seismic data contains geometrical and petrophysical information about the reservoir that can help to build more reliable models. Nonetheless, such models remain imperfect representations of the reality given the complexity of the geological processes leading to the creation of the reservoir. Although wrong, these models are still useful pieces of information: they mimic important aspects of reality on top of matching observations that remain generally uncertain, inconsistent, and insufficient.

The discussions were split between the use of 3D seismic data for static model infilling in the morning and the use of 4D seismic data for model update in the afternoon. The presentations of different case studies and technological advances allowed numerous issues to be raised during the discussions. Key ideas were also suggested for circumventing these challenges. Participants at the workshop were mainly geophysicists but the few geologists and reservoir engineers present took an active part.

The discussions touched upon, among other topics, the integration of different data, the necessity of stochastic and probabilistic approaches, the cross-disciplinarity of the tasks and the needs of new technologies.

These are described in more detailed below.

An integrated approach for conditioning the geological model to seismic data involves the following factors: First, the type of geological information that benefits from seismic should properly 8

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be selected constraints and establishing a link between geology and geophysics. The quality of the petro-elastic model (PEM) is a key aspect of the problem. The well data quality and their representativeness over the field or at least a reservoir unit are clearly a source of difficulty when establishing the PEM. Another challenge is its validity at different scales: from log or even core scales to geological model or seismic scales. Achieving this implies properly tackling up- and down-scaling of the information. For 4D analysis, the PEM needs to be calibrated for static but also dynamic property changes. Unfortunately, this last aspect is often impossible as repeated log measurements are seldom acquired.

Second, appropriate seismic constraints and their associated uncertainties to guide the distribution of geological information should be estimated. Seismic data quality varies because of acquisition or processing quality leading to spatial variability of the noise. The spatial characterization of seismic data quality should be incorporated in an uncertainty analysis as much as possible.

Third, the weighting of the geological and seismic constraints should properly be defined. If seismic quality attributes can be computed, their combination into a seismic uncertainty indicator remains today only feasible through qualitative and pragmatic approaches.

Finally, consistency between the final model infilling and the observed seismic data should be assessed. The ability to loop from the model back to the seismic constraint can be useful. It may allow revisiting the seismic constraint, the modelling parameterization or the geological concepts.

Geostatistical techniques provide attractive probabilistic approaches, ensuring the integration of different datasets and their uncertainties. They may allow 2019

weighting the various input data according to their reliability. Tailored parameterizations of the geostatistical method, taking into account the geological environment of deposition, can also give the possibility of varying the influence of the seismic information spatially.

Combining all available information using probabilistic approaches leads to dealing with large amounts of data and model realizations. Strategies to cope with such large amounts of data are fundamental for success, but require improvements.

It should also be kept in mind that models such as PEMs or geological models are by nature approximations of the reality and therefore partially wrong; introducing a large amount of data into a deficient model may lead to overconfidence in erroneous predictions.

For the specific case of using dynamic data for assisted history matching through ensemble-based methods (ensemble Kalman Filter or iterative ensemble smoother as presented during the workshop), the large amount of seismic data compared to the available production data leads to convergence issues. Appropriate weighting of data and a priori model information is a key element to avoid this.

Workshop participants shared their experience and discussed what leads to practical success. The cross-disciplinary nature of the modelling exercise was emphasized. It relies, among other things, on a shared earth model and the ability to visualize and interpret results of different disciplines together. It is important to target model properties for which a clear link between seismic and key static petrophysical and geological properties or dynamic behaviour can be established. The purpose of the model is also a key factor for deciding how seismic information could be used optimally.

EAGE NEWS

Moreover, there is a need for collaboration to define the useful heterogeneities to be modelled for dynamic simulation, for example, the heterogeneities that we need to model depend on the recovery mechanism.

Some participants mentioned that the lateral upscaling required by the flow simulators can destroy the fine scale variability carried by the seismic information, which is in many cases valuable. Some have also experienced cases where a fine lateral scale of the model was more important than a fine vertical scale: a transition from the traditional vertically fine and laterally coarse grids imposed by flow simulators to more adaptive gridding and simulation methods should be considered.

The benefit of 4D information to constrain model infilling and update was stressed throughout the workshop. It may

also allow visualizing production in a different manner than using production data alone. Thanks to its ability to highlight changes in the reservoir, 4D seismic may trigger local updates of existing models.

Beyond classical 4D data, new technologies such as 3D full waveform inversion, 4D inversion, and, when available, multi-component 4D seismic have shown to be useful technologies. However, as in the case of production data, 4D seismic data only provide information on model parameters where production effects have happened, leaving areas with uncertainties. Care should be taken when using 4D information in assisted history matching as the model parameterization influences the estimated update.

When dealing with 4D seismic, the quantity of data may become gigantic.

Compared to 3D seismic data, this increases the need for proper workflows, with possibilities to test different scenarios, run multiple realizations, or support ensemble-based data assimilation methods. Although assisted technologies are now showing good results, they are still heavily dependent on the understanding of the physical problem, the geological setting, and access to appropriate data with uncertainty quantification.

Overall, the workshop provided a good platform for exchanging experiences with the successes but also the difficulties of constraining reservoir models with 3D or 4D seismic. It was a stimulating opportunity to discuss the various available techniques for mixing the different sources of information (geology, geophysics and production data) and explore the future of this challenging domain.

Research and operations of shale reserves development discussed at Moscow workshop

Two-day workshop brought together specialists from 24 companies.

The EAGE/SPE Joint Workshop 2019 ‘Shale Science Theory and Practice’ that took place in Moscow on 8-9 April covered a variety of issues including modelling of non-conventional reservoirs; the technologies to explore and produce shale oil, and the quantitative estimation of hydrocarbon resources.

The workshop brought together 70 experts from 24 companies providing a platform for knowledge sharing and determining the most important trends in exploration and development of non-conventional hydrocarbon reservoirs. The workshop’s agenda included five sessions with a total of 38 presentations.

The discussion involved the leading experts from the biggest scientific and technological centres of Russia and representatives of oil companies with practical experience in shale oil. Unlike the previous workshops, participants were able to develop deeper mutual understanding. In many ways this was due to industry progress over the last two years.

Now companies know their particular needs and the direction they have to go to organize efficient development of non-conventional reservoirs, and they are no longer afraid of technical difficulties.

Efficiency remained a topical issue with research regarded as an important factor to resolve current challenges.

Geological science today pays significant attention to a rock’s material composition. Many of the presentations at the workshop were devoted to the crucial role played by organic matter. Residual shale water management was another subject of scientific interest. In the field of well logging interpretation, speakers pointed to the increasing complexity of the techniques to detect a rock’s mineral composition.

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New approaches to determining net pay in shales were also discussed.

During the event, a lot of attention was paid to integration of different methods for searching sweet spots, including seismic surveying, potential field data, thermo-physical methods and tectono-physical modelling. Such integrated methods illustrated the degree of individuality of the Bazhenov formation section.

It was reported that the search to optimize shale deposit development might include thermal treatment combined with micro-fracturing. Discussing reserves estimation, participants focused on the methods used for non-conventional reservoirs and suggested new approaches to quantitative estimation of hydrocarbon reserves for the Domanic deposits and Bazhenov formation.

Those attending all agreed that the joint EAGE/SPE workshop on shale oil serves as a valuable platform for knowledge sharing that has become increasingly popular over the years. The next event is planned for 2021.

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Lars Sønneland 1945 - 2019 Lars Sønneland was one of the early players in the seismic industry in Norway. His deep knowledge and his ability to turn theory into practice and business was outstanding. But he was also a very

His early contributions were in seismic acquisition working on dual streamer wavefield separation and other techniques that could improve the image of the subsurface. He was also an early

EAGE Honorary Member, Lars Sønneland was an early leader of Norwegian E&P seismic research.

good friend and communicated well with everyone, especially the younger generation that came in after the early years of development of this new industry in Norway. His enthusiasm and inspiration continued until his sudden death.

Lars graduated from the University of Bergen with a PhD in applied mathematics. After three years in academic research he joined the Geophysical Company of Norway (Geco) in 1974.

The move clearly suited him and his employer because he stayed with Geco through all its metamorphoses, recently retiring from Schlumberger after 41 years to become a consultant advisor to the Stavanger-based research group that he created and nurtured. However, his advice was not only to his colleagues, but also to the many who met him in their work. Norwegian oil companies (there were three in the early days) all benefited from his advice on the direction of research as well as more mundane practical questions that came up during projects.

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advocate of 3D seismic and was a key player in one of the very first marine 3D surveys in Europe, over the Sleipner field in 1981. In those days interpretation of 3D data was cumbersome, and time slices over the area difficult to obtain. But Lars saw possibilities in the use of computers for the analysis, and started development of Charisma, the first truly interactive commercial workstation capable of supporting 3D seismic interpretation. At the EAEG meeting in Oslo in 1983 he presented a paper on computer-aided interpretation of seismic data, in which he outlined the possibilities for access to both the full 3D data volume as well as options for post-processing of the data.

After Schlumberger’s purchase of Geco in 1986, Lars worked with Schlumberger’s research centres in Stavanger, Europe and USA. He continued to be an inspiring manager for numerous research and development projects. Over the years he contributed to ideas and applications for generating and inter2019

preting 3D seismic attributes, whether from towed marine seismic, seabed seismic, borehole seismic or time-lapse seismic. His emphasis was on integrating seismic interpretation with stratigraphic modelling, geological process modelling, reservoir simulation, geomechanics and microseismics. As a result of his outstanding contribution to the industry, Schlumberger decided to place one of their focal research centres in Stavanger under his leadership, building on his knowledge and significant reputation in the geophysical community.

Although the output from the Stavanger research group that he led was focused on commercial application, Lars has a significant publication record, including many patents, a good number of peer-reviewed articles and a large body of expanded abstracts presented at both SEG and EAGE annual meetings.

He was a tireless supporter of EAGE conferences and workshops and contributed to the steering committees of several Norwegian scientific bodies. He also served on university review boards in Norway, Switzerland and Scotland.

His ability to present a topic was clearly demonstrated at the EAEG meeting in Belgrade in 1987. He began by referring to a movie at the time entitled ‘Missing’ starring actor Jack Lemmon and confessed that his slides had suffered the same fate. But without slides or other illustrations, he gave an interesting talk on attenuation of water-layer multiples.

Through his outstanding career in geophysics, he contributed to the development of key technologies like 3D seismic and interpretation workstations.

With more than 150 scientific papers and reports published and several patents, he received several awards. In 1985 he was awarded the Industry Prize by the Norwegian Society of Graduate Technical and Scientific Professionals, and in 1987 he received the Norwegian Geophysical Award. Lars Sønneland was awarded Honorary Membership of EAGE in 2016. He will be missed by all friends and acquaintances both in Norway and internationally, but most of all by his wife Jorun and children Margrethe and Eirik and five grandchildren.

EAGE NEWS

Collaboration is key to Aberdeen LC success A key element of Local Chapter Aberdeen’s busy programme in 2018 and now 2019 has been the collaboration with the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (PESGB), which has a strong presence in the north east of Scotland. Joint evening lectures are held twice-yearly, with subjects selected to appeal to a broad range of geoscience and geoengineering interests.

The most recent shared lecture in March was presented by GeoTeric’s Ryan Williams, who gave an excellent talk on spectral decomposition, a

technique which can be used to extract and visualize hidden details in seismic data. After describing how it works, and showing some fantastic examples, Williams described a new workflow for forward modelling spectral decomposition results. This can be used to rapidly validate or discount different geological scenarios and thus reduce interpretation uncertainty.

For the October 2018 lecture Graham Leslie from the British Geological Survey (BGS) introduced the abandoned Spireslack coal mine site in the west of

Scotland, and described the plans to turn it into a geo-heritage site for education and professional training.

The arrangement with the PESGB is mutually beneficial. The two local chapters have overlapping, and in many ways complementary, memberships and areas of interest. The shared events ensure that rather than competing for attention, both benefit from reaching a wider audience and enjoying a broader range of topics.

Continuing the theme of collaboration, next event for Aberdeen LC will be at the SPE-organized Seismic 2019 conference, where the EAGE is sponsoring the networking reception.

The June evening lecture will be given

by Dan Davies of BP on 4D seismic monitoring.

Spireslack former coal mine site in west of Scotland.

Ryan Williams of GeoTeric.

EAGE Student Calendar 2 JUN

LAURIE DAKE CHALLENGE FINAL

LONDON, UK

3 JUN

MINUS CO2 CHALLENGE FINAL

LONDON, UK

4 JUN

GEO-QUIZ 2019

LONDON, UK

16-20 JUN

THE 8TH INTERNATIONAL GEOSCIENCES STUDENT CONFERENCE (IGSC)

UPPSALA, SWEDEN

17 JUN

REGIONAL GEO-QUIZ 2019

UPPSALA , SWEDEN

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION PLEASE CHECK THE STUDENT SECTION AT WWW.EAGE.ORG

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EAGE NEWS

Hungarian students celebrate landmark meeting

50th anniversary meeting.

Young geoscientists in Hungary had their moment recently when they took part in a 50th anniversary of the first event bringing together students from all over the country.

EAGE contributed to the gathering of BSc, MSc and PhD students in Ráckeve on 29-30 March, organized by the Junior Board of the Hungarian Association of Geoscientists, an

EAGE Associated Society, in collaboration with the Local Chapter Hungary, established in 2005.

For most attendees, this was the first experience presenting to a large audience and topics covered multiple topics including geophysical measurements, geochemistry, thermal convection, hydrogeology, atmospheric electric potential gradient measurements and artificial neural networks.

A six-member jury evaluated presentations and assigned prizes in three categories to Muhammad Nur Ali Akbar (University of Miskolc) in the applied geoscience category; Éva Oravecz (Eötvös L. University) in the theoretical geoscience category; and Dániel Botka (Eötvös L. University) for the best poster.

The Hungarian Geological Society, MOL, MinGeo, Geo-Log, O&G Develop-

ment, Elgoscar-2000, Biocentrum, Mining Support, and the Hungarian Office for Mining and Geology all supported the occasion.

To learn more about this event and similar initiatives in the EAGE network for young professionals, we invite you to join our YP special interest community on LinkedIn.

Student opportunity to present.

Aberdeen students make mine visit

Student field trip.

Latest expedition for members of the Aberdeen University Student Chapter (SC) was a visit to Spireslack surface coalmine in Glenbuck, East Ayrshire, Scotland. The

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mine exposures offer the perfect opportunity to observe geological structures common in the subsurface. The trip was organized together with AAPG Student Chapter led by

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Graham Leslie and Mike Browne (BGS) to whom the students expressed their thanks.

Aberdeen SC was formed just a year ago by Carlos Colombo, a geophysics Masters student. A new committee was elected last October consisting mainly of petroleum geoscience students although geophysics and reservoir engineers are also represented.

Among the social and educational events organized in the last year was a visit to the Aberdeen Maritime Museum to learn about the history of Aberdeen’s oil industry. Members also took part in the Laurie Dake Challenge and online GeoQuiz.

The Chapter is grateful to faculty advisor Dr David G. Cornwell and SC president Paul Mitchell for their continued support in establishing, renewing and helping maintain good communication regarding upcoming events and topics.

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EAGE NEWS

LC Paris plans field trip to Notre Dame Cathedral devastation

Smoke pours out of iconic Paris cathedral.

The aftermath of the calamitous fire at Notre Dame Cathedral will be the focus of the next meeting of Local Chapter Paris in June. A field trip entitled ‘Geol-

ogy and History of Notre Dame de Paris’ will give members the opportunity to combine geoscience and French cultural insights in the wake of the blaze that

has left the cathedral structure partially in ruins.

Although only established last November, LC Paris has already hosted three technical events, a DLP webinar session and prepared an intense programme for the year 2019. Since the beginning, the feedback from participants has been very positive and appreciative.

The latest event in March featured a technical talk on ‘Geology and Oenology’

by Prof Loïc Villier, organized in collaboration with France, an EAGE Associated Society. SGF (Société Geologique de France).

Last month, Dr Milena Marjanovic, member of the WGE community, gave a presentation on ‘Crustal accretion and hydrothermal circulation at the East Pacific Rise: insights from waveform inversion techniques’ at IPGP in Paris. After the presentation, Masters and PhD students had the opportunity to present their own research work in a poster session.

On 12 September LC Paris will host an overview session of the EAGE Annual Conference and Exhibition 2019. Stay tuned on its LinkedIn page if you wish to attend!

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Capture Small Changes Extract more with GeoStreamer multisensor broadband 4D

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CROSSTALK

BY AN D R E W M c BAR N E T

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The times they are a-changing The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) in Houston celebrated The only flaw in the format of course was that it focused only on its 50th anniversary in May. It is amazing to consider how the industhe service industry perspective. Participants could only speculate try has evolved since 1969. Production platforms able to withstand about the intentions and requirements of oil companies operating the North Sea environment had yet to be installed, routine use of in what, as ever, continues to be a volatile market for oil and gas. marine 3D seismic would not happen for at least another decade, The more cynical might say guessing what the customer needs has seriously deepwater E&P was still only a concept, the list goes on. always been the predicament, whether it is technology choice, scale At OTC you usually have to search out the seismic topics of investment in operations, etc. Cruelly, the risks and penalties of because the programme has traditionally been more focused on getting it wrong are arguably greater than for most other industries. engineering. This year those who showed up for the session on Good news was the consensus that the market for seismic the ‘State of the Seismic Industry: Preparing for the Upturn’ were services is improving, thereby validating the ‘upturn’ in the session rewarded with a stellar occasion worthy of an anniversary. The title. ‘More normalized’ was how Pedersen described demand from industry’s establishment was out in force and apparently willing to oil companies meaning that cheap was no longer their only criteria. talk frankly about past disappointments and the reasons for being Recognition of advanced seismic acquisition offerings was once more optimistic in the future. again being recognized, especially for 4D seismic monitoring of The star cast consisted of Maurice Nessim, Sophie Zurquiyah, reservoirs, he said.

Rune Olav Pedersen, and Duncan Ely, CEOs respectively of The familiar puzzlement at the lack of oil company exploration Schlumberger’s WesternGeco division, CGG, PGS, and Polarcus. investment was also in evidence. Several graphs showed that oil They were joined by Erik Finstrom, recently companies have the free cash flow to spend appointed senior vice president, new ventures, ‘Familiar puzzlement at on new exploration projects if they so desired.

TGS, and formerly senior vice president, exploMoreover to meet projected global oil and the lack of oil company gas demand and replace depleting reserves, it ration excellence at Statoil (now Equinor).

It was Finstrom in his initial presentation exploration investment was surely inevitable that more seismic would who goaded his colleagues on the platform be required. And at such an attractive price. was also in evidence’ As an example, Finstrom showed that for the by pointing out that throughout the downturn TGS, as the asset light, multi-client specialist, giant Libra field Brazil project, the investment managed to stay profitable, as he put it, ‘crushing’ the vessel-operin marine seismic 3D data was around $15 million in an overall ating marine acquisition companies. No one could disagree, Nessim development that will end up netting at least $10 billion in estimated having pointed out the industry in recent times managed to lose $4 production revenues. billion in the space of four years. The worldwide towed-streamer Yet, it was recognized that oil companies remain focused on vessel fleet over the same period dropped from 60 to around 20. maximizing reserves from existing fields, or are mesmerized by The interest, therefore, was to learn how each of the companies the potential returns from the US shale boom. Building reserves by was hoping to move on from the crisis. The result was almost acquisition might also be an option for companies with money to worthy of a game show in the sense that the contestants were spend. This is less hassle than going through block appraisal and given a slot to present their case. The audience could then judge licensing round applications. their proposition. Unfortunately there was no voting because clear The panel’s monitor Nikki Martin, president, International differences in strategy emerged.

Association of Geophysical Contractors, also reminded everyone

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fluctuations and over-capacity. The same applies to OBN service that a political pushback against oil industry operations is underway companies and manufacturers currently on a roll, but heading in a number of countries. Some are actually banning future drilling, towards the same commoditization issues which have impacted others are making their regulatory regimes increasingly demanding. the towed-streamer market so drastically. Zurquiyah remarked that In the past seismic companies have tended to wait out the acquirers must be able to make money to provide the subsurface recession, mothballing capacity in the expectation that demand for data needed. Without success, R&D would be compromised and their vessels would return. That mindset has definitely changed retaining talent will be an issue. among these heavy hitters. There was a lot of talk instead about It was WesternGeco’s Nessim who mused not entirely in jest doing things differently in the future. The priority now is to reduce on a future ‘Uber’ style ordering of seismic surveys. This was days cycle time from data acquisition to interpretation. This will be best before Uber’s disappointing float on the New achieved through greater adoption of multi-cliYork Stock Exchange, but nonetheless it had an ent surveys and the increased collaboration this ‘The digitalization logic ominous ring about it. The unanswered question implies with customers. In addition, embracing can be seen in the was who would be supporting such a ‘vessel on the digital revolution will deliver better quality data more efficiently and rapidly. new emphasis on having call’ system. A doom-laden scenario sometimes discussed in the marine seismic community is There was an obvious caveat. The emerging lots of data available’ more or less total consolidation of the global strategies providing cost and efficiency benefits fleet, potentially under the ownership and conmay encourage oil companies to invest more trol of state enterprises in China or Russia unencumbered by the enthusiastically in more exploration. Less clear was how the service normal standards of profit and loss accountability to stakeholders. companies will make their money if they are competing to make That would make ordering up a vessel straightforward. things as cheap and efficient as possible for their clients.

To be fair, Nessim’s Uber aside was in the context of his We now have four major players committed to identifying company’s digital vision for the seismic business and a different potential multi-client opportunities around the world. This has been way of managing the vessel pool. Like all of his colleagues he TGS’s bread and butter for the last 20 years. It has just bolstered envisions a digital reinvention of exploration, sooner rather than its position by acquiring its smaller rival Spectrum in the process later. It involves the whole gamut of the Cloud, Big Data, cognitive giving it substantial 2D and some 3D coverage off South America, computing, data analytics and especially machine learning to do where it was slow on the uptake compared with others. Now, the ‘heavy lifting’ and thereby accelerate exploration projects. In WesternGeco (Schlumberger) and CGG are becoming dedicated his view, the Cloud will lead to more integration between experts multi-client companies with no fleet operation burden. They have and collaboration. A silver lining might be easier recruitment of very substantial data libraries across the globe to build on. More students, attracted by the digital dimension of the business. importantly, they are looking to leverage their geoscience leadership The digitalization logic can be seen in the new emphasis on in the processing, interpretation and management of data. having lots of data available rather than on the sophistication of the PGS will also be providing competition as it intends to continue acquisition techniques involved. 4IR, the so-called fourth (digital) being a significant player in the multi-client market supported by its revolution, will take care of the rest. The service companies are own vessels. It is therefore sticking to the traditional business model in fact echoing the digital strategy being embraced by all the which it refers to as integrated. The company believes that its high major oil companies who among other things are linking up spec data acquisition technology using state of the art vessels offers with the Cloud services of the likes of Microsoft, Google and a key advantage in the market with consistent high quality data Amazon. through the cycle.

Those who doubt the reality of coming digitalization in the The dedicated asset-light multi-client business model makes the seismic business should have been in Houston the week after the key assumption that marine seismic data equipment will continue to OTC gathering. That was when DownUnder GeoSolutions (DUG), be available for both towed-streamer and increasingly ocean bottom the Australian processing company, launched its Cloud services node (OBN) seismic surveys. The presentations in Houston by PGS tailored to the needs of the geoscience community. The McCloud and Polarcus offered an optimistic view of the towed-streamer mardata centre on a 10 acre Skybox facility in Houston will initially ket and hybrid survey opportunities combining OBN for specific house a 250 petaflop (single precision) machine but the plan is targets. If the company had been there, the Shearwater GeoServices to expand to at least a jaw-dropping exaflop of compute power. representative would doubtless have been supportive of the Polarcus DUG’s intention is to offer the leasing of compute cycles and strategy, e.g., providing survey services to proprietary and multi-clistorage customized for the industry with companies paying only ent projects but staying out of building its own multi-client library. for what they use. That should lead to significant cost savings and There is no reason to suggest that the usual risks of seismic efficiencies for those who employ the service. And that’s exactly vessel operations have changed, meaning that the modest remaining what the OTC leadership forum was all about. global seismic fleet will continue to be vulnerable to market

Views expressed in Crosstalk are solely those of the author, who can be contacted at andrew@andrewmcbarnet.com.

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HIGHLIGHTS

INDUSTRY NEWS

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Sonardyne’s sensors to monitor Gulf of Mexico currents

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EMGS doubles revenues from previous quarter

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TGS acquires Spectrum to grow its multi-client business TGS is acquiring Spectrum for $422 million to grow its business in the South Atlantic margins and cement its position as a leading provider of multi-client seismic data in all major mature and frontier basins.

Spectrum owns the world’s largest 2D library, which combined with TGS’ financial robustness will facilitate acceleration of 3D investment plans, said TGS. The deal will also save an estimated $20 million a year in cost synergies.

The transaction, which is expected to be completed as a statutory merger under Norwegian corporate law, is supported by the board of directors of each of the companies, as well as 34.1% of Spectrum shareholders. The merger is expected to be closed during the third quarter of 2019 after shareholder approvals in an extraordinary general meeting and regulatory clearance.

TGS — which has reported a first quarter net profit of $18 million and a cash balance of $390 million — said that combining an extensive library and ‘financial robustness’, the new company will accelerate 3D seismic investment plans in an improving market. Furthermore, the combined libraries will have a scale that will help accelerate TGS’ data analytics strategy.

‘Spectrum has successfully built a strong position in key offshore basins, particularly in the South Atlantic. The transaction thus fits well with one of TGS’s key

Employment in oil and gas industry returns to 2013 levels

strategic goals of growing exposure to this region. Moreover, Spectrum’s library, and in particular the vast 2D coverage, further adds to TGS’s strategy within data analytics, where access to large amounts of data is a key success factor,’ said Kristian Johansen, chief executive officer of TGS. Rune Eng, president and chief executive officer of Spectrum, said: ‘The strategic combination of TGS and Spectrum will form a stronger and better company with a world class data library, people and opportunities.’

The board of directors of Spectrum has unanimously supported the transaction. In addition, Spectrum institutional shareholders, including Gross Management, Altor Fund IV, support the deal.

The shareholders of Spectrum will receive: 0.28 shares of TGS per one share in Spectrum, meaning that the shareholders of Spectrum will receive a total of 16.6 million shares in TGS, representing 13.9% of all issued shares in TGS immediately following completion of the transaction.

An additional cash consideration to Spectrum shareholders of $27 million will be paid if the transaction is completed by early August 2019.

The transaction remains subject to a two thirds majority of Spectrum shareholders voting for it at an extraordinary general meeting.

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Employment levels in the oil and gas industry have returned to pre-downturn levels, according to a recent report by Deloitte.

The report, titled Decoding the O&G Downturn, says the industry’s current employment numbers are at 4.5 million – just 1% below 2013 numbers (before the downturn).

This was due to the 300,000 industry layoffs in oilfield services, pure-play E&Ps and private IOCs being offset by the hiring of 255,000 employees by NOCs and pure-play midstream and downstream companies, according to Deloitte.

There has been particular growth in new analytics jobs. The report also finds that the hardest hit oilfield services segment managed to maintain research and development (R&D) spending of $3.4 billion. However, the report found that IOCs and NOCs reduced spending on R&D.

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Successful Argentine licensing round leads to big seismic surveys ExxonMobil and Wintershall/Tullow Oil are among the IOCs who will commission big 3D seismic surveys after winning blocks in Argentina’s first licensing round.

A total of 38 blocks were on offer in shallow, deep and ultra-deepwater in the Austral, Malvinas and Argentina basins in the first open bid round for Argentine offshore acreage in more than 20 years.

Eighteen blocks were awarded after winning bids totalling $718 million. Energy analyst Wood Mackenzie said that ‘most of the blocks were won with seismic commitments’.

ExxonMobil (70%) in partnership with Qatar Petroleuam (30%) won exploration blocks MLO-113, MLO-117 and MLO-118 in the Malvinas basin, 320 km offshore Tierra del Fuego. As part of the work programme 3D seismic surveys will be commissioned.

Tullow Oil (operator), Wintershall and local company Pluspetrol won won Blocks MLO-117 and MLO-119 in the Malvinas Basin, some 300 km off the coast of Tierra del Fuego in depths up of 500 m. The 6000 km2 and 4500 km2 blocks will be covered with modern 3D seismic surveys.

Equinor won five blocks as operator: MLO-121, CAN-102, CAN-108, AUS105 and AUS-106. ‘These awards fit with

Eighteen of the 36 blocks were sold.

our exploration strategy, providing us with access at scale in basins with high impact potential,’ said Tim Dodson, Equinor’s executive vice-president for exploration.

Total, in partnership with Equinor and YPF, won Block MLO-123. YPF, in partnership with Equinor, won Block CAN-114. Tullow Oil won Block MLO122, A consortium of Eni, Mitsui and Tecpetrol won Block MLO-124. Shell, in partnership with Qatar Petroleum, won blocks CAN-107 and CAN-109. Total, in partership with BP, won blocks CAN-111 and CAN-113.

Horacio Cuenca, research director at Wood Mackenzie, said: ‘The Argentine government designed very competitive terms for this round, acknowledging the frontier nature of the acreage. The terms were appealing enough to attract the companies with the technical capabilities and deep enough pockets to chase this high-risk acreage: the majors. Most of the bidders already had a presence in the country, having taken significant positions in the Vaca Muerta shale play.

‘Low upfront payments were required, and bidding was done on work commitments. In addition, the blocks are large, which allows companies to maximize exposure to potential finds. The exploration periods are also long; a company can keep the whole block for eight years before it has to relinquish half of it. There are no drilling commitments for the first four years.’

Meanwhile, Spectrum has recently launched a new 20,000 km 2D survey in the Colorado and Salado basin offshore Argentina. This data will assist in future licence block selection, and will support full interpretation from the Moho to water bottom. It will be processed with broadband PSTM and PSDM products and will be delivered by Q2 2019.

Shearwater wins big seismic survey contract from Shell Shearwater Geoservices has won a multi-project marine seismic 3D and 4D acquisition contract from Shell.

The contract covers four separate surveys: three in the North Sea and one off the coast of Western Australia. The surveys are expected to provide a total of five vessel-months of utilization in 2019.

In the North Sea, the vessel Polar Empress will execute a 4D survey on the Ormen Lange field of Norway and 3D surveys on the Greeves and Blue Water

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fields in the UK sector. The Ormen Lange 4D project will be Shearwater’s first at the field and is a large 1000 km2 survey with 16 streamers over a period of two months starting in late Q2. The Greeves and Blue Water 3D surveys will take approximately one month to complete, using Flexisource triple source technology.

In Western Australia, the Polar Duchess will execute the Factory 3D survey over a two-month period covering

2019

more than 3000 km2. The project will start in the second half of 2019.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Polarcus reports Q1 net loss of -$5 million

Duncan Eley, Polarcus CEO, was upbeat.

Polarcus has reported a first quarter net loss of -$5 million on revenues of $75 million compared to a net profit of $2.8 million on revenues of $31 million in Q1 2018 and a net loss of -$18 million on revenues of $66 million in Q4 2018. Q1 operating profit was $2.8 million compared to $5.2 million in Q1 2018 and -$19 million in Q4 2018.

Q1 contract revenue was $66 million and multi-client revenue $8 million compared to $58 million contract revenue and $9 million multi-client revenue in Q4 2018. There was no multi-client revenue in Q1 2018.

The company’s cash balance is $29 million (excluding the undrawn $40 million overdraft facility). Backlog at the end of Q1 was $170 million, up from $150 million at the same time last year.

Gross cost of sales of $55 million increased 40% year-on-year mainly driven by additional third-party vessel operating costs. General and adminisFIRST

trative costs decreased to $3 million compared to $4.2 million in Q1 2018.

Polarcus CEO, Duncan Eley said: ‘Segment revenues of $67.1 million in Q1 2019 increased 67% year-onyear and grew for the fifth consecutive quarter. The increase was driven by improved day rates and strong utilization as well as revenue from the first Polarcus hybrid project (towed streamer and ocean bottom node) that commenced during the quarter using third party vessels.

Utilization of the company’s core fleet of seismic vessels increased significantly to 88% in Q1 2019, up from 74% in the same quarter of the previous year.

‘There was a solid improvement in underlying profitability yearon-year with Segment EBITDA of $10.2 million in Q1 2019, compared to negative -$12.9 million in Q1 2018 before the results were positively affected by $13.9 million in non-cash accounting gains from the 2018 financial restructuring and capitalization of multi-client project costs of $11.2 million. In Q1 2019 no costs were capitalized to multi-client and the growth in underlying EBITDA was driven by improved day rates and utilization.

‘The level of tenders and inquiries has been encouraging and we continue to maintain a balance between building backlog and securing new contracts with more attractive margins. The company’s fleet is 60% booked for the remainder of 2019 providing the opportunity to increase earnings further.

‘Average pricing for 2019 proprietary contracts secured to date shows continued improvement. Financial performance in the first quarter of 2019 was in line with expectations.

However, improved performance is expected in the second half of 2019, following a number of vessel relocations scheduled for Q2 2019.’

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Big fall in multi-client revenue leads to first quarter net loss of -$65 million for PGS PGS has reported a first quarter operating loss -$42.5 million on revenues of $129.3 million compared to an operating profit of $26 million on revenues of $245 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 and an operating loss of -$7.3 million on revenues of $201.3 million in Q1 2018.

The company made a first quarter net loss of -$65 million, compared with a net loss -$23.5 million in the fourth quarter of 2018 and a net loss of -$40 million in the first quarter of 2018.

Q1 segment revenues of $141.9 million, compared with $245 million in Q4 2018 and $197.8 million in Q1 2018.

Total segment multi-client prefunding revenues of $30 million, with a corresponding prefunding level of 48%, compared to $34 million in Q4 2018 and $58.6 million with a prefunding level of 109% in Q1 2018.

Multi-client late sales revenues of $60.9 million compared with $164 million in Q4 2018 and $83.5 million in Q1 2018.

Contract seismic revenue was $44, compared to $41 million in Q4 2018 and $44.5 million in Q1 2018.

‘Segment multi-client prefunding revenues in Q1 2019 were impacted by an

overweight of low prefunded surveys in the mix,’ said Rune Olav Pedersen, president and chief executive officer. ‘This will reverse in the coming quarters, and the prefunding level for the full year 2019 is expected to be in the upper half of the targeted range 80-120%.

‘The order book increased by 46% in the first quarter. I am confident, based on the improved visibility for vessel utilization, multi-client prefunding and contract revenues, that we will be able to deliver a significant improvement in cash flow and profitability in 2019, compared to 2018.

‘Pricing for contract work booked to date is now more than 35% higher than the average rate in 2018. The price increase is a combination of a general market improvement, more 4D work and our ability to build an attractive project portfolio.

The higher prices will primarily benefit our contract revenues in the second and third quarters.’

Looking ahead to the rest of the year, PGS said that it expects ‘significant cash flow generation among clients and an increase in exploration and production spending, including offshore spending,

to contribute to further recovery of the marine seismic market fundamentals going forward.’

‘Contract seismic is likely the activity that will benefit most from the improvement, driven by more 4D acquisition and generally higher demand for new proprietary seismic data.’

PGS expects full-year 2019 gross cash costs of approximately $550 million. Multi-client cash investments are expected to be approximately $250 million.

More than 50% of 2019 active 3D vessel time is currently expected to be allocated to multi-client acquisition.

Capital expenditure for 2019 is expected to be approximately $85 million, which includes the reactivation of the vessel Ramform Vanguard.

Orders were $238 million at March 31, 2019 (including $90 million relating to multi-client). The order book was $163 million at December 31, 2018 and $211 million at March 31, 2018.

Cash flow from operations was $119.4 million. Liquidity reserve was $205.4 million, an increase of $45.9 million, or 29%, compared to previous quarter.

The company’s debt is $1.28 billion.

Acteon strengthens its geophysical survey offer with Benthic purchase Subsea services group Acteon has agreed to acquire offshore marine geotechnical and geophysical survey company Benthic.

Headquartered in Houston, Benthic adds deepwater and ultra-deepwater surveying capabilities to Acteon through its proprietary portable remotely operated drill (PROD) technology. Benthic’s latest generation PROD system can conduct insitu penetration testing and collect samples and cores in extremely challenging conditions, including seabed slopes greater than 20° and water depths exceeding 3000 m.

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Benthic’s PROD system.

and geophysical surveys in all the world’s deepwater basins for leading oil and gas clients. Work has recently been executed 2019

in South America in water depths exceeding 2100 m, and the latest equipment upgrades enable operations in depths of up to 4000 m, and there are plans to expand services to include offshore wind and scientific research.

Steve Pywell, chief executive officer of Benthic, said: ‘I am excited by the opportunities offered by becoming part of Acteon, which will enable us to work collaboratively with the other companies in the group and allow us to offer a broad range of integrated solutions.

Pywell will continue to lead the Benthic team.

35°0'0"E

multi-client seismic

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Republic of Lebanon Essential 3D & 2D Multi-Client Seismic for 2019 License Round

35°0'0"N

LEBANON

Cyprus

Legend SPU Leb 3D: 5,358 km2 Expected bid round 2019 EMED 00 repro 2018: 12,034 km Regional 1975 repro: 7,834 km Leb02 repro 2018: 2,006 km Spectrum Leb Onshore: 78 km Licensed Areas

Block 1

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Block 2

Block 4 TOTAL

Block 3

Lebanon 3D

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Beirut

Lebanon

Block 6

Block 5

Block 7

Damascus

Block 8

Block 9 TOTAL

Block 10

Karish

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Syria

Tanin !

Tamar ! !

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Lebanon has announced the blocks for a second offshore licensing round with bids !

Leviathan ! !! ! due to be submitted in 31st January 2020. ! !

Spectrum’s 5,358 km2 of 3D seismic data covers much of the most prospective areas of the Levantine Basin.Dalit In addition Spectrum’s comprehensive suite of East ! Dolphin 1 1 Mediterranean products includes 22,645 km of high quality 2D seismic. !

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Rocks under the North Sea could store energy to light up the UK in the winter Rocks in the seabed off the UK coast could provide long-term storage for renewable energy, new research from the universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde has found.

A technique could be used to trap hundreds of millions of cubic metres of compressed air in porous rock formations found in the North Sea using electricity from renewable technologies.

The pressurized air could later be released to drive a turbine to generate large amounts of electricity.

Using the technique on a large scale could store enough compressed air to meet the UK’s electricity needs during winter, when demand is highest, the study found.

The approach could help to deliver steady and reliable supplies of energy from renewable sources – such as wind and tidal turbines – which require new processes that can store energy cheaply and reliably for months at a time, researchers say.

Engineers and geoscientists from the universities of Edinburgh and Strathclyde have used mathematical models to assess

the potential of the process, called compressed air energy storage (CAES).

The team then predicted the UK’s storage capacity by combining these estimates with a database of geological formations in the North Sea. Porous rocks beneath UK waters could store about one and a half times the UK’s typical electricity demand for January and February, they found.

Compressed air energy storage would work by using electricity from renewables to power a motor that generates compressed air. This air would be stored at high pressure in the pores found in sandstone, using a deep well drilled into the rock. During times of energy shortage, the pressurised air would be released from the well, powering a turbine to generate electricity that is fed into the grid.

Locating wells close to sources of renewable energy – such as offshore wind turbines – would make the process more efficient, cheaper and reduce the amount of undersea cables required, the team said.

Dr Julien Mouli-Castillo, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who led the study, said: ‘This method could make it possible to store renewable energy produced in the summer for those chilly winter nights. It can provide a viable, though expensive, option to ensure the UK’s renewable electricity supply is resilient between seasons. More research could help to refine the process and bring costs down.’

The study, funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council, Scottish Funding Council, and the Energy Technology Partnership, estimates that as many as 7,800 holes could be drilled in sandstone formations to create new reservoirs at a cost of between $15 and $60 million each.

Potential rock reservoirs could be sited near to wind farms southern North Sea, the eastern Irish sea and the Inner Moray Firth, creating ‘valuable synergies’.

A similar process storing air in deep salt caverns has been used at sites in Germany and the US.

SeaBird negotiates purchase of two seismic vessels for $19 million

BOA Thalassa is expected to join the SeaBird fleet.

SeaBird Exploration is in exclusive talks to buy the seismic vessels BOA Galatea and BOA Thalassa for $19 million.

The BOA vessels are well suited for source and 2D operations, as well as EM seabed logging, for which BOA Thalassa is currently contracted with EMGS until September 2019 with options for EMGS to extend for three periods of six months each.

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In order to finance the acquisition as well as to finance an upgrade of BOA Galatea to high-end 2D/source capability, the company has raised $26 million in a private placement of new shares in SeaBird.

As part of the transaction, certain BOA SBL bondholders have elected to receive new shares in the company valued at $5.5 million, which will come in addition to the private placement.

BOA Galatea and BOA Thalassa were built in 2008 and 2009 at the Norwegian yard for an original construction cost of $67 million in total. Both vessels are rigged and fully operational as EM vessels, and are well suited for upgrade to high-end 2D/ source capability. The company estimates such an upgrade to cost $11 million per vessel. The net investment for BOA Galatea is 2019

expected to be limited to $8 million, as the company can use existing spare equipment in the upgrade.

Hans Petter Klohs, chief executive officer in SeaBird, said: ‘As a consequence of increased demand in all our regions, we have had to turn down work in the first quarter of 2019 due to scheduling conflicts. The BOA Galatea and BOA Thalassa will be excellent additions to our operational fleet, being ideally suited for source and 2D operations in addition to EM seabed logging. We are excited to have developed this transaction which will provide us with two very suitable quality vessels at a very attractive price further strengthening our position and service offering in the 2D, source and niche 3D markets.’

INDUSTRY NEWS

Sonardyne’s sensors to monitor Gulf of Mexico ocean currents Equipment developed by Sonardyne International will be used as part of a $2 million scientific study of disruptive ocean currents in the US Gulf of Mexico.

The multi-year deployment, led by the University of Rhode Island (URI)’s Graduate School of Oceanography, will monitor the Loop Current System (LCS) using Sonardyne’s Pressure Inverted Echo Sounders (PIES).

Sonardyne’s Pressure Inverted Echo Sounder (PIES) being deployed.

The LCS is the dominant ocean circulation feature in the Gulf of Mexico. It influences all ocean processes in the Gulf and has implications for a wide range of human and natural activities, from oil exploration to coastal eco-systems, but, knowledge of its underlying dynamics is limited. URI’s initial study aims to improve the understanding and prediction of the LCS by deploying a seabed network of PIES plus near-bottom current meters

ModelVision Magnetic & Gravity Interpretation System All sensors Processing 3D modelling 3D inversion Visualisation Analysis Utilities

to monitor the central Gulf’s deep waters.

PIES works by transmitting an acoustic pulse from an instrument on the seabed upwards. The pulse is reflected off the water-air boundary at the sea surface and returns back down to the seabed where it is detected by the PIES. This enables an exact measurement of the two-way signal travel time to be calculated. At the same instant, an accurate measurement of depth is made using highly precise internal pressure sensors. Data from an array of PIES instruments and near-bottom current meters with historic water profile data can be combined to calculate currents throughout the full water column.

Some 25 of Sonardyne’s and URI’s own PIES and current meters will be deployed this summer down to 3500 m depth, with an initial data retrieval using acoustic through-water communications to a surface vessel planned for autumn 2019. Instrument recovery is scheduled for autumn 2020. The results of this study will be used to inform how best to deploy a larger array for a planned 10-yearlong research campaign.

URI’s LCS study is being funded by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine’s Gulf Research Programme, which was founded in 2013 as part of the legal settlements with companies involved in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The long term objective is to improve forecasts of the LCS in order to increase the safety of operations in the Gulf.

URI GSO programme director, Professor Kathleen Donohue, said: ‘Sonardyne’s PIES is a highly capable instrument, with fast seafloor to surface data telemetering capabilities, which will complement URI’s instruments and scientific expertise and will play a key role in this deployment.’

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INDUSTRY NEWS

ION reports first quarter net loss of -$21 million on revenues of $37 million ION Geophysical has reported a net loss of -$21.4 million on revenues of $37 million in the first quarter 2019 compared to a net loss of -$18.4 million on revenues of $33.5 million one year ago.

The company reported EBITDA of -$4.6 million for the first quarter 2019, compared to EBITDA of -$1.1 million one year ago.

Net cash flows from operations were $15.4 million during the first quarter 2019, compared to $0.6 million in the first quarter 2018. Total liquidity was $78.1 million, consisting of $38.4 million of cash on hand, and $39.7 million of available borrowing capacity under its $50 million revolving credit facility.

Brian Hanson, ION’s president and chief executive officer, said, ‘I’m pleased with the start to the year given the uncertain market outlook many of our E&P clients had in December due to oil price volatility. While 2019 E&P spending levels are projected to be slightly up, it remains unclear how robust exploration activity and funding will be in 2019.

However, we are cautiously optimistic given the uptick in new venture interest we’re seeing.

‘We continue to believe market fundamentals will gradually improve as it becomes increasingly critical to meet production demand in the next decade.

Oil and gas projections suggest continued demand growth may create a supply gap in the middle of the next decade that shale may be unable to meet, necessitating offshore deepwater exploration and development. Due to the time it takes to develop and start producing oil and gas from new discoveries offshore, there’s an increasing need to reinvest in conventional resources offshore to meet demand in the middle of the next decade.

‘Near-term, however, we expect exploration spending will remain very focused, with the majority of data sales tied to licence rounds closing this year. We remain focused on an increase in new multi-client programme development.’

Within the E&P Technology & Services segment, multi-client revenues were $23.4

million, an increase of 19%, with data library revenues increasing 67% and new venture revenues essentially flat compared to the first quarter of 2018. The increase in data library revenues was primarily attributable to higher sales of recently completed 3D reimaging programmes and existing 2D data offshore Brazil. Imaging Services revenues were $3.7 million, a decrease of 25%. While Imaging Services revenues declined, a significant number of new projects closed during the quarter, increasing Imaging Services backlog to its highest level since 2015.

Within the Operations Optimization segment, Optimization Software & Services revenues were $5 million, a 5% increase from the first quarter 2018, due to an increase in engineering services revenues, primarily driven by the continued increase in market adoption and deployments of ION’s Marlin offshore operations optimization software. Devices revenues were $4.8 million, a 16% increase from the first quarter 2018, driven by an increase in repairs.

Oil majors report slight dip in first quarter profits Equinor has reported first-quarter earnings of $4.19 billion and $1.54 billion after tax, compared to $4.41 billion and $1.54 billion in Q1 2018.

‘In a quarter with lower commodity prices, we delivered higher after-tax results than in the same period last year.

Our cash flow from operating activities was strong at $6.5 billion in the quarter, and we have reduced our net debt ratio to 19.4%,’ says Eldar Sætre, president and CEO of Equinor.

Equinor delivered total equity production of 2178 mboe per day in the first quarter, on a par with the same period in 2018.

As of the end of first quarter 2019, Equinor had completed 11 exploration wells with four commercial discoveries.

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Exploration expenses in the quarter were $0.27 billion, up from $0.24 billion in the same quarter of 2018, mainly due to higher field development costs.

BP has reported first quarter profit of $2.4 billion, compared to $2.6 billion a year earlier.

Oil and gas production for the quarter averaged 3.8 million barrels a day of oil equivalent. Upstream production, which excludes Rosneft, was 2% higher than a year earlier.

Three upstream major projects – in Trinidad, Egypt and the Gulf of Mexico – have started production in 2019 and BP has taken final investment decisions for three more upstream major projects.

Chevron reported earnings of $2.6 billion for first quarter 2019, compared with

2019

$3.6 billion in the first quarter of 2018.

Sales and other operating revenues in first quarter 2019 were $34 billion, compared to $36 billion in Q1 2018. ‘First quarter earnings declined from a year ago, largely due to lower crude oil prices and weaker downstream and chemicals margins,’ said Michael Wirth, Chevron’s chairman of the board and chief executive officer.

ExxonMobil has announced estimated first quarter 2019 earnings of $2.4 billion compared with $4.7 billion a year earlier.

Oil-equivalent production was 4 million barrels per day, up 2% from the first quarter of 2018.

Royal Dutch Shell has reported first quarter earnings of $5.3 billion. Cash flow from operating activities for the first quarter 2019 was $8.6 billion.

INDUSTRY NEWS

EMGS doubles revenues from previous quarter

Atlantic Guardian completed a survey in South America..

EMGS has reported first quarter revenues of $10.8 million, up from $4.3 million

in the first quarter 2018 and down from $13.4 million in the fourth quarter 2018.

Adjusted EBITDA (including capitalised multi-client expenses and vessel and office leases expenses) was -$1.2 million, up from -$8.1 million in the first quarter 2018.

The company decreased its quarterly cost base, consisting of all operational costs including multi-client investments, from $12.4 million in the first quarter last year to $12 million this quarter.

Free cash increased in the quarter from $3.2 million to $9.6 million.

During the quarter, the Atlantic Guardian completed a proprietary acqui-

sition contract in South America. The BOA Thalassa commenced work under the $24 million proprietary acquisition contract in South-East Asia.

CEO of EMGS, Bjørn Petter Lindhom, said: ‘EMGS has had a strong start to 2019, with a substantial increase to the company’s backlog. The company’s backlog as of today is approx. $100 million, including the LOA received from Pemex for a multi-year proprietary acquisition contract. Furthermore, I am very pleased to note that in the first quarter of 2019, the company has experienced increased sales traction in all major business regions.’

TGS reports first quarter net profit of $18 million TGS has reported first quarter net income of $18 million compared with $61 million in Q4 2018 and $13 million in Q1 2018. Operating profit was $17 million (15% of net revenues), compared with $68 million in Q4 2018 and $25 million (18% of net revenues) in Q1 2018.

Revenues of $110 million in Q1 2019, compared to $188 million in Q4 2018 and $135 million in Q1 2018.

The company said that while operational investments and pre-funding revenues came in behind plan due to post-

poned start-up of projects, this was offset by late sales coming in above internal expectations.

Net late sales were $91 million, down from $151 million in Q4 2018 and $115 million in Q1 2018. Net pre-funding revenues were $14 million, funding 37% of TGS’ operational multi-client investments for the quarter, compared to $34 million in Q4 2018 and $17 million in Q1 2018.

Operational multi-client investments were $37 million, compared with $63 mil-

lion in Q4 2018 and $31 million in Q1 2018. TGS’ cash balance remained strong at $390 million.

TGS said that financial guidance for 2019 is unchanged: growth in multi-client investments of 20% with pre-funding of new multi-client investments at 40-45%.

‘The market outlook continues to improve in line with a strong oil price development over the past months. We have announced several new projects so far this year,’ said Kristian Johansen, CEO of TGS.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

Schlumberger reports dip in quarterly profit Schlumberger has reported first quarter revenue of $7.9 billion compared to $8.2 billion in Q4 2018 and $7.8 billion Q1 2018. Pretax operating profit of $908 million was down from $967 million in Q4 2018 and $974 million in Q1 2018.

International revenue of $5 billion decreased 5% sequentially, but increased 3% year-on-year. North America revenue of $2.7 billion decreased 3% sequentially and 3% year-on-year.

Multi-client sales were $131 million in the first quarter of 2019 compared with $176 million in the fourth quarter of 2018. WesternGeco backlog was $228 million at the end of the first quarter of 2019 compared to $343 million at the end of the fourth quarter of 2018.

Cash flow from operations for the first quarter of 2019 was $326 million. Capex for the full year 2019 is still expected to be approximately $1.5 to $1.7 billion, compared to $2.2 billion in 2018.

Schlumberger chairman and CEO, Paal Kibsgaard, said: ‘First-quarter revenue of $7.9 billion declined 4% sequentially, reflecting the expected reduction in North America land activity and seasonally lower international activity in the Northern Hemisphere. In addition, there were reduced software, product, and multi-client seismic license sales following the fourth-quarter increase.

‘In North America, first-quarter revenue was 3% lower sequentially as expected, driven by softer pricing and lower activity for both our hydraulic fracturing- and drilling-related businesses.

Offshore revenue in North America was slightly down sequentially with increased wireline activity in the US Gulf of Mexico offset by lower multi-client seismic license sales.

‘Our view of the international markets is consistent with recent third-party spending surveys, suggesting that E&P investments will increase by 7 to 8% in 2019, supported by a higher rig count and a rise in the number of customer project FIDs. In line with this, offshore development activity plans continue to strengthen. We are also seeing the start

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of a return to exploration activity on renewed interest in reserves replacement. Notably, new discoveries in 2018 were at the lowest level since 2000.’

Latin America area revenue of $1 billion increased 1% sequentially due to high offshore exploration-led activity for the IOCs, increased IDS work, and higher multi-client seismic license sales.

Reservoir Characterization revenue of $1.5 billion, of which 81% came from the international markets, decreased 7% sequentially and 1% year on year. This was driven partly by reduced multi-client seismic licence sales in the US Gulf of Mexico.

In Mexico, Pemex awarded WesternGeco a 14,000-km2 processing and reimaging project to integrate more than 20 datasets acquired in the Campeche Basin in the southern Gulf of Mexico over a 20-year period. The surveys were conducted by several companies, including WesternGeco, and applied various technologies such as wide-azimuth, narrow-azimuth, and ocean-bottom cable. The project will create an integrated earth model to help Pemex focus on deep targets and provide a greater understanding of the complex subsalt reservoirs in the prolific Campeche basin.

In Mexico, Schlumberger and Shell signed an agreement to license a large WesternGeco dataset from the Campeche and Perdido areas.

The agreement includes acquisition of new multi-client surveys in these areas using third-party vessels, as well as licensing existing data. WesternGeco will also perform advanced high-resolution reimaging on subsets of data in parallel with data processing to aid Shell in optimizing drilling locations.

Drilling revenue of $2.4 billion decreased 3% sequentially. Production revenue of $2.9 billion declined 2% sequentially.

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INDUSTRY NEWS

CGG launches mining satellite service CGG’s NPA Satellite Mapping venture has launched MineScope, a suite of satellite-derived services that enable mining companies to make smarter geological, geotechnical and safety-related decisions.

Recent tailings dam incidents in Australia and Brazil highlight the need for reliable geospatial intelligence that can strengthen awareness of site activities,

MineScope ground stability (InSAR) measurements.

Halliburton reports big rise in profits

geotechnical processes and evolving hazards, said CGG. MineScope can also isolate potential mineral reserves prior to field-based reconnaissance and validation, saving time and money in the earliest stages of a mining project. The tool offers pit and stockpile volume calculations, tailings parameters, and ground deformation and slope stability (InSAR) measurements, it added.

EMGS wins multi-year CSEM contract from big oil company

Halliburton has reported net income of $152 million for the first quarter of 2019, compared with net income for the first quarter of 2018 of $46 million. Adjusted net income for the first quarter of 2019 was $201 million.

This compares to adjusted net income for the first quarter of 2018 of $358 million. Halliburton’s total revenue in the first quarter of 2019 was $5.7 billion, essentially flat year over year. Q1 operating income was $365 million, a 3% increase compared to reported operating income of $354 million in the first quarter of 2018. Adjusted operating income was $426 million for the first quarter of 2019 and $619 million for the first quarter of 2018.

EMGS has won a minimum $29.3 million multi-year acquisition contract after a sole-sourced tender process.

The contract, awarded by one of the world’s largest national oil companies, could be worth up to $73.3 million over a two-year period.

EGMS will mobilize the vessel Atlantic Guardian for the project.

Bjørn Petter Lindhom, CEO of EMGS, said: ’This letter of award from a repeat customer, together with the ongoing proprietary acquisition in South-East Asia, has secured backlog for both of the company’s

vessels, providing a sound basis for two-vessel operation for the company in 2019.

‘It also gives us confidence that our strategy of integrating CSEM into oil companies’ exploration workflow is on the right track. More and more oil companies’ realize that CSEM is an important tool for reducing exploration risk and cost, with an attractive ROI when used correctly.’

Based on current acquisition estimates, the company expects that all or a substantial part of the minimum contract value will be recognized in 2019.

ConocoPhillips sells UK assets to Chrysaor Holdings Chrysaor Holdings is to acquire ConocoPhillips’ UK oil and gas business for $2.675 billion. The assets being acquired produced approx. 72,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) in 2018. This acquisition increases Chrysaor’s pro forma 2018 production to 177,000 boepd, making Chrysaor one of the largest oil and gas producers in the UK North Sea. ConocoPhillips UK assets now contain 30

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more than 280 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) proved and probable (2P) oil and gas reserved. As a result of this acquisition, Chrysaor will add two new operated hubs in the UK Central North Sea: Britannia and J-Block. The third material acquired asset is an interest in the Clair Field area located in the highly prospective West of Shetlands region. In the UK southern North Sea, Chrysaor will 2019

assume responsibility for a decommissioning programme on ConocoPhillips UK’s assets that have come to the end of their life. Chrysaor plans to have completed execution of this programme by 2022.

Phil Kirk, chief executive of Chrysaor, said: ‘This significant acquisition reflects our continuing belief that the UK North Sea has material future potential for oil and gas production.’

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INDUSTRY NEWS

UK approves Sercel’s mammal monitoring system

Abu Dhabi launches 2019 bid round

Sercel’s QuietSeaTM Passive Acoustic Monitoring (PAM) system has been extended to the UK, after the UK government approved its use for a seismic survey operated by CGG in waters off the Shetland Islands. QuietSea is a fully integrated PAM system with sensors designed to fully integrate with seismic acquisition or navigation systems, and which are incorporated with the hydrophones in the Sentinel streamer.

By eliminating the need for deployment of separate PAM antennas at sea, QuietSea reduces the risk of accidents during deployment, retrieval and operation, thus significantly reducing operational downtime and possible equipment replacement costs.

In addition, prior to deployment in UK waters, QuietSea improved performance with the extension of the frequency bandwidth to 180 kHz, allowing the detection of porpoise click trains.

Machine-learning seismic workflows move closer for Anadarko Adnoc has launched Abu Dhabi’s 2019 Block Bid Round, opening for bidding five new onshore and offshore exploration blocks.

Five blocks have been announced for commercially competitive bidding in this second round, three of which are offshore and two are onshore. The UAE is the world’s seventh-largest oil producer, with about 96% of its reserves within the emirate of Abu Dhabi. Located in one of the world’s largest hydrocarbon super-basins, there remains significant undiscovered and undeveloped potential in the numerous stacked reservoirs.

The bid round follows Adnoc’s first ever competitive licensing in April 2018.

Blueware Corp is developing machinelearning and cloud-enabled geophysical workflows for Anadarko Petroleum.

The digital innovation platform for seismic data has been working with Anadarko to develop several proprietary workflows around data-driven low-frequency modelling, automated volume-to-volume comparisons and rock physics modelling.

Sanjay Paranji, chief technology officer for Anadarko, said: ‘The Bluware platform is a key part of our continued growth as it is a modern platform streaming seismic data to AI/ML based workflows as well as legacy applications/workflows – two things that are vitally important for business continuity.

Bluware’s platform delivers high-performance adaptive streaming of seismic data, enabling workflows that were previously inconceivable.’

In addition to the augmentation of legacy workflows, the companies are closely collaborating on seismic data preparation to directly feed TensorFlow and interactive deep-learning training and inference, which bring together data scientists and geoscientists.

At the core of the Bluware platform is a powerful adaptive data streaming system that enables a Netflix-like experience for all workflows, extracting insight and business value from seismic data at terabyte and petabyte scales.

DUG’s supercomputer is cool

Bubba will have ten cooling towers.

Immersion tanks have arrived to cool DUG’s huge geophysically configured

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supercomputer, Bubba, in Houston. Part of a cloud service called DUG McCloud, the supercomputer will be housed in a purpose-built exascale compute facility in Houston. Construction began on the Texas facility in late 2018.

Ten cooling towers and 20 km of cooling pipes were installed for Bubba, and enough power boards and air handlers to line the entire 50 m north wall.

2019

Computer nodes will be fully submerged in tanks filled with polyalphaolefin dielectric fluid. The initial DUG McCloud data hall has 15 MW of power, which will house a 250 petaflop (single-precision) machine once fully installed. A second identical data hall is available when needed, to grow to 500 PF. As demand grows, the facility will be expanded beyond an exaflop. DUG hopes it will be the first US exascale supercomputing system.

INDUSTRY NEWS

Sercel launches structural and earth monitoring applications Sercel has launched applications of its sensor for structural monitoring of buildings and earth monitoring of earthquakes and landslides.

Sercel’s DSU1-508 digital sensor uses the MEMS technology.

The company said that its QuietSeis MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical System) seismic sensor technology which is

BRIEFS Saudi Aramco is set to raise $12 billion with its first international bond issue after receiving more than $100 billion in orders.

designed to record data from onshore to water as deep as 6000 m will be offered to the structural building and earth monitoring markets.

In buildings the solution would work well because instrument noise is below 15ng/√Hz, it said. As announced earlier this year, Sercel is currently developing an integrated solution, in partnership with APAVE, for permanent structural monitoring.

For the earth monitoring market, the solution will be offered as a service to provide real time observation of earthquakes, volcanoes and other natural hazards, such as subsidence and landslides.

Pascal Rouiller, CEO of Sercel, said: ‘It is exciting to now be able to widen the scope of application of this technology to two crucially important fields, earth and structure monitoring, and see first-hand how the resulting improvements in data quality can deliver tangible, real-world benefits.’

Ikon Science launches deep QI machine learning applications Ikon Science has launched RokDoc 6.6.2 which applies Machine Learning and Deep Neural Networks to subsurface problems.

Users can now train both Deep Neural Networks and Support Vector Machine algorithms to predict discrete and continuous properties seamlessly across 1D (e.g. well logs) through to 3D (e.g. seismic and engineering models) and into 4D (e.g. time lapse seismic) domains.

‘For several years we have been researching ways in which Deep Learning algorithms can aggregate the valuable knowledge contained within months, years or decades of detailed, physics-based historical data analysis including geophysical, geological, geopressure and geome-

chanical domains,’ said Martyn Millwood Hargrave, Ikon Science chairman and founder.

RokDoc 6.6.2 also features 3D Reservoir Characterization workflows fully in depth with auto generation and rendering of all objects in both the time and depth domain regardless of their native formats. Users can now perform seismic data conditioning, seismic depthing and inversion on the move. RokDoc 6.6.2 release also sees the full commercial release of depth domain Joint Impedance and Facies Inversion (Ji-Fi) for all existing Ji-Fi customers. This enables users to interactively invert post and pre-stack seismic data to geological facies images and corresponding rock properties.

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Shell is reported to be in talks to buy BP’s stake in the Shearwater oil and gas field in the British North Sea for around $250 million. Shell, the field’s operator, announced plans last year to expand a gas hub around Shearwater, including the construction of a new pipeline. Shell has a 28% stake in Shearwater, BP holds 27.5% and ExxonMobil 44.5%.

The UK Planning Inspectorate has set the start date of 5 November 2019 for the planning inquiry to hear Egdon Resources’ appeal against the refusal of planning consent for the development of the Wressle oil field by North Lincolnshire Council’s Planning Committee.

The British government’s ‘fracking tsar’ Natascha Engel has resigned after just six months because she said that government policy was preventing the industry from developing. Engel, who was appointed the Commissioner for Shale Gas to act as a link between local communities, the industry and regulators, said that forcing fracking to stop every time there is a micro-tremor ‘amounts to a de facto ban on fracking’.

ExxonMobil has made a new oil discovery offshore Guyana at the Yellowtail-1 well, marking the 13th discovery on the Stabroek Block. Yellowtail-1 is the fifth discovery in the Turbot area, which ExxonMobil expects to become a major development hub. Yellowtail-1 encountered 89 m of high-quality oil bearing sandstone reservoir and was drilled to a depth of 1843 m of water. The well is located approx 10 km northwest of the Tilapia.

SeaBird Exploration has secured a new contract for source work in the US Gulf of Mexico with a repeat customer. The Osprey Explorer is performing the 40-60 day contract.

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33

World's First Smart Seismic Sensor Makes Cost-effective High Density Seismic Possible

SmartSolo IGU-16 IGU-16 3C 3C SmartSolo IGU-16

High Capacity Battery

Stake-less Operation

Auto Scan Mode

for Max Flexibility

International Sales Unit 145, 3901-54 Ave, NE Calgary, AB T3J 3W5 Canada Tel: +1-888-604 SOLO (7656) Fax: +1-403-398-1450 Email: sales@smartsolo.com

Optional Wireless QC

www.dtcc.biz www.smartsolo.com

3C Model Available

for Fast Deployment

HR

Optional High Resolution mode (0.25ms sampling rate)

Simplify your search Geophysics Modernized

P: (408) 954-0522

Email: Sales@geometrics.com

2190 Fortune Drive

www.geometrics.com

San Jose, California 95131 U.S.A

LAND PRODUCTS

MARINE PRODUCTS

SOFTWARE RENT THE ATOM AUTONOMOUS SEISMIC RECORDER FOR DEEP MICRO-TREMOR SEISMIC RECORDING IN URBAN ENVIRONMENTS C

SALES & RENTALS

Visit us online for survey planning tools; equipment training videos; magnetic forward modelling program and comprehensive rental pool of engineering geophysical instruments – worldwide shipment.

T: +44 (0)1525 383438 E: sales@geomatrix.co.uk

OME & SEE U AT EAGE S 2019 B OOTH N O. 703

20 Eden Way, Pages Industrial Park, Leighton Buzzard, Beds LU7 4TZ. UK.

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