IG Seismic Services Signs Long Term Seismic Exploration Agreement

IG Seismic Services, the leading pure-play land and transitional zone seismic company in Russia and the CIS, announces that GEOTECHIG  Holding and Gazprom Neft have signed a long term agreeement on seismic exploration.

GEOTECH Holding CJSC and Gazprom Neft JSC have signed a three-year agreement for the conducting of seismic exploration work. The total area covered by the geophysical exploration under the contract may cover up to 5,000 square kilometers by the year 2015. The work will be performed using 3-D technology, as well as the innovative UniQ high density seismic data acquisition technology, which will be used in Russia for the first time.

The agreement envisages conducting seismic exploration, processing and interpretation of geophysical data, and provision of expert recommendations. The agreement envisages a complex approach towards the deposit exploration process on the part of the service provider, which will start its expert evaluation by specifying the technical objectives for the work to be conducted.

Within the agreement framework, the high definition seismic exploration will cover some potentially productive deposits belonging to the Gazprom Neft company. These deposits include sections of the Chonsky project (the Ignyalinsk, Vakunaysk and Tympuchikansk sections) in Eastern Siberia, as well as the Gazpromneft-Noyabrskneftegaz JSC sections in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District: West-Chatylkinsk section (acquired in 2011) and Valyntoysk section. Follow-up exploration of the West-Luginets section, where Gazpromneft-East initiated development of Nizhne-Luginets deposit three years ago, is planned for the Tomsk region.

The territory of other Gazprom Neft assets located in those regions in which the company has been traditionally present has been almost completely covered by 3-D seismic exploration technology.

Moreover, in December 2012 Gazprom Neft became the first Russian company to use the UniQ technology on the Vakunayskoe deposit of the Chonsky project. The UniQ technology, developed by Schlumberger, has no analogous comparisons in the world. It is a unique, complex system, consisting of geophysical equipment and software designed for high-resolution seismic exploration of deposit reserves. GEOTECH Holding has the exclusive right to offer services based upon the use of the UniQ exploration technology on the territory of the Russian Federation and the CIS.

Alexey Vashkevich, Head of the Directorate for Geological Exploration and Development of the Resource Base of Gazprom Neft, said, “The long-term agreement will enable Gazprom Neft to improve investment planning efficiency, as well as guarantee the involvement of our partners’ best specialists in geological exploration projects at the earliest stages of their implementation”.

Rustam Rahmatulin, GEOTECH Holding’s Senior Sales and Marketing Vice President, is confident that the signing of this agreement is a significant, logical step forward to further development of the partnership between Gazprom Neft and GEOTECH Holding companies. “We expect that this agreement with Gazprom Neft JSC will make it possible to find new forms of mutually beneficial cooperation. The UniQ technology will allow us to begin a new era in the sphere of Russian seismic exploration, and attain a brand new world level”, he stated.

Earlier in December of 2012 GEOTECH Holding (the managing company for IGSS’ assets) and Oil company Gazprom Neft signed an agreement on the seismic exploration of the Vakunayskiy license area in the Irkutsk Region. For the first time in Russia, exploration of hard to recover oilfield resources will be conducted using the unique technology of high density seismic data acquisition, UniQ, which was developed by Schlumberger. The technology has no analogous comparisons in the world.

The agreement envisages conducting seismic exploration over the course of three field seasons. The total area covered by the high density seismic exploration will cover 1,125 square km of the license area.

Over the past few years, the UniQ technology has been successfully used by leading foreign oil and gas companies for resource exploration at new greenfield areas with complicated geological structures, and for the additional exploration of existing brownfield areas that cannot be explored effectively using standard seismic exploration methods.

The innovative UniQ technology will be used in the Russian Federation for the first time.

The technology is a complex combination of both geophysical equipment and software, designed to help with the efficient exploration of oilfield resources with a high resolution of data. The existing examples of the geological and geophysical efficiency through using the UniQ technology application in various regions of the world show significant advantages compared to the results of common seismic exploration methods. UniQ seismic acquisition data, after having been processed, provides very detailed analysis of the structure of the layers. This allows for the most precise geological model of the existing oilfield to be built, leading to a significant increase of the effectiveness of exploration drilling, in turn resulting in a cost reduction of further oilfield exploration.

Currently, the UniQ technology is the most universal, state-of-the-art and one of the least costly means of increasing efficiency of new greenfield exploration, as well as of the additional exploration of the remaining recoverable reserves. The technology has no regional or climatic limitations and can be easily adapted to the geological challenges of any type of oilfield.  Importantly, the technology factors in the individual geological characteristics of an oilfield, as well as the climatic, managerial and technological conditions involved in project implementation. The complex approach from start to finish, from drafting the optimal registration of the field data’s exploration methods to the implementation by a field crew of high quality data processing, including pre-stack depth migration and full-fledged data interpretation.

Within the strategic partnership framework, Schlumberger will provide CJSC GEOTECH Holding with comprehensive technical and technological project support. Employees of the Russian geophysical company will be trained to work with new equipment on the basis of Schlumberger training center in UAE. Schlumberger experts will be constantly present in the field during the first season of exploration.