Downloads
Press Releases
Shell and Electromagnetic Geoservices sign research and development agreement
by: OilOnline
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
Shell International Exploration and Production BV and Electromagnetic Geoservices AS have announced the signing of a one-year agreement with the option to extend this another year to collaborate on expanding the capabilities of emgs’ proprietary marine electromagnetic surveying technique, which is known as seabed logging.
Under the terms of the agreement, which is currently the only one between Shell and a provider of marine electromagnetic surveys, emgs will receive funding for conducting research, testing concepts and developing software. Shell backing will secure access to emgs’ software resources and computers, and the participation from the emgs organisation and the key individuals needed to achieve common objectives. In addition, Shell will fund exclusive seabed-logging surveys. Both parties will also conduct parallel in-house development of the method.
The research efforts will focus on enhancing operating efficiency and expanding the applications of seabed logging. Both parties expect to gain competitive advantage from the collaboration. emgs will accelerate its development programme and improve understanding of the requirements of one of its biggest customers. Shell will benefit from emgs’ technical support and will, for an agreed period, receive exclusive rights to the advances in seabed logging that are developed together with emgs.
One significant objective of the collaboration is to build on emgs’ current 3D survey capability by addressing certain aspects of data acquisition and processing. By giving greater insight into the electromagnetic properties of the subsurface, 3D surveys will help to address challenges like finding hydrocarbons in more complex geological environments containing volcanics, salt or carbonates.
Dirk Smit, Shell Exploration Technology Manager, describes the value of this initiative: “Shell uses seabed logging to reduce exploration risks and deliver a greater number of successful wells in less time. We recognise that the full capability of 3D imaging and the inversion of seabed-logging data over various frequency bandwidths are very important to this and look forward to working with emgs to develop this capability.”
Christian Bukovics, Exploration Manager for the Northwest European Atlantic Margin area in Shell adds “The Norwegian Sea is an example of a geologically complex area where a further refinement of the seabed logging method is critically important to enable its successful application, in turn leading to better exploration outcomes. I am delighted about the Shell-emgs co-operation and confident that it will result in real break-throughs.”
An emgs vessel will commence the first experimental 3D survey for Shell within days.