Stale Thoughts and Broken Links

Old entries from my weblog on geophysics and the energy industry.

2006.07.31

Sunday Business, London: British Energy Firms Lead Race for Stake in India's Major Gas Find.

"UK oil and gas giants BP, BG Group and Royal Dutch Shell are now leading the race to win a stake in India's largest ever gas discovery after US oil giant ExxonMobil, France's Total and seven other international oil companies were knocked out last week."


2006.07.26

Perry A. Fischer, World Oil: Seismic source offerings provide options for operators.

"Any device that releases acoustic energy could be considered a seismic source, and there are many. Historically, one would think that just about everything imaginable has been used. However, amazingly, folks are still coming up with new ideas...."

> Last year Perry was looking for someone with an exploration background to join his staff as a regular contributor. He does a great job of holding up the seismic end by himself, though.


Houston Business Journal: Veritas, Seitel form joint alliance for seismic data.

"Veritas DGC Inc. and Seitel Inc. announced Tuesday that they have formed an alliance to reprocess and license Seitel's non-exclusive seismic data in the Gulf of Mexico shelf region."

> Depth migration, maybe?


Press Release: Seismic Survey Completed in Otway Basin.

"... a 2D seismic survey ... offshore Australia has been completed."


2006.07.24

Just discovered this from the June 3rd issue --

Science News (subscription): Oil Booms: Whales don't avoid noise of seismic exploration.

"Field tests in the Gulf of Mexico suggest that sperm whales there don't swim away from boats conducting seismic surveys of the seafloor. However, the surveys' noise ... may be having subtle effects on the whales' feeding behavior."

> Sorry, you won't be able to access it without a subscription -- although the page I linked does allow you to access the AGU abstracts.

> The Science News site also included a video showing fish under the ship during the survey. This was too good to let pass, so I'm posting a pilfered version for you here. Warning: it's a 19 Mbyte Windows Media Video.


2006.07.21

Reuters: Schlumberger earnings jump.

"Schlumberger Ltd., the world's largest oilfield services company, on Friday posted a 78 percent jump in quarterly profit, beating Wall Street forecasts, as its seismic unit that measures oil and gas deposits expanded rapidly."


Perry Fischer, World Oil: What's new in exploration.

"... it occurs to me that some day, many aspects of marine seismic acquisition will be done by AUVs. This is where you probably think that a screw has finally come loose, and one of my frontal lobes just plopped out onto my keyboard."


BNAmericas: EMGS Cleared to Perform Seismic Studies for Petrobras, Devon.

"Norwegian electromagnetic seismic studies company EMGS has obtained the first license to perform electromagnetic studies in Brazil for federal energy company Petrobras and US oil company Devon Energy"


2006.07.18

AFP: Greenland makes oil companies melt.

"A 2001 US Geological Survey found that north-eastern Greenland, facing Norway, was likely to boast spectacular reserves. With the water just 100 to 200 metres deep, this sector is said to contain up to 110 billion barrels of oil, half of the known reserves in Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest exporter of oil."


O&GJ: Hess logs oil pay in deepwater gulf well.

"Hess Corp. said wireline logs of its deepwater Pony prospect on Green Canyon Block 468 in the Gulf of Mexico indicate 475 ft of oil-saturated sandstones in Miocene age reservoirs. Hess drilled the well to 32,448 ft TD."


Press Release: Noble Energy Closes on GOM Asset Sale.

"Noble Energy, Inc. on Friday closed on the previously announced $625 million sale of its Gulf of Mexico shelf assets to Coldren Resources LP."


Press Release: CGG and TAQA Sign Definitive Shareholder Agreement.

"TAQA -- CGG's long-term Saudi partner in ARGAS -- owns 49% of the capital of CGG Ardiseis, a newly formed CGG subsidiary dedicated to land and shallow water seismic data acquisition in the Middle East. CGG holds the remaining 51%."


Hart's E&P: Fusion Petroleum Technologies Inc. Announces The Commencement of the National Petroleum Assessment Agreement with the Democratic Republic of The Congo.

> I don't exactly understand it.


2006.07.13

PR Newswire: Paradigm Announces Agreement to Acquire Earth Decision.

"From advanced seismic visualization and velocity modeling to well path design and platform position optimization, Earth Decision offers workflow-driven solutions for both the novice and the expert user. The Base Module, powered by GOCAD, is acknowledged as the industry's leading 3D structural modeling tool."

> So Paradigm is going to integrate GeoDepth and GOCAD?


Business Wire: WesternGeco to Acquire the First Multiclient Wide-Azimuth, Towed-Streamer Seismic Survey in the Gulf of Mexico.

"WesternGeco announced today that Shell Exploration will underwrite a major portion of the first exploration multiclient wide-azimuth (WAZ) towed-streamer survey in the Gulf of Mexico. The project covers a minimum of 200 Outer Continental Shelf blocks in the central Gulf of Mexico, about 125 miles off the coast of Louisiana in water depths of 4,400 ft."


PR Newswire: GX Technology Selected for Major Onshore Imaging Project.

"GX Technology Corporation ... announced [last week] that it has been awarded the largest full-wave imaging project in the company's history. GXT was selected by ... Sinopec for a comprehensive interpretive imaging program at the largest gas field in western Sichuan Province, China. GXT was awarded the contract to identify high-potential, drillable prospects based on seismic data that was previously acquired using I/O's VectorSeis(R) digital full-wave sensors."


2006.07.12

Reuters: IEA sees oil supply growth exceeding demand in '07.

"World oil demand will grow more quickly in 2007 than this year despite high prices, but rising output from producers outside OPEC will ease the strain on supply, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday."


O&GJ: Wyoming's deep Hilliard shale in evaluation.

"Gasco as operator obtained a drilling permit for a 16,500-ft exploratory test to test overpressured tight gas sands in the Cretaceous Lance, Mesaverde, Ericson, Rock Springs, and Hilliard shale formations. Completed well cost is estimated at $8 million."


2006.07.09

Houston Chronicle: Japan has a request of Exxon Mobil.

"Tokyo Electric, the world's biggest buyer of liquefied natural gas, recently asked Exxon Mobil to consider abandoning a plan to pipe natural gas from Russia to Japan and instead turn the fuel into LNG.... Japanese companies are calling for an alliance of the gas projects now under way in Russia's Sakhalin region.

"Combining Exxon Mobil-led Sakhalin-1 and Shell-led Sakhalin-2 would reduce costs and prices."


2006.07.07

Wall Street Journal (subscription): Crude Facts.


Fortune: Chevron CEO -- Corn is not the answer.

"Last year we made $14.1 billion, this year we're investing $14.8 [billion]. If you look cumulatively over the last four or five years, we've invested every dollar we've earned."


Walter Kessinger

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