The Ramform Valiant, a seismic vessel owned and operated by Petroleum Geo-Services ASA, has started acquisition of over 26,000 km² of GeoStreamer® data in five blocks in the Kwanza/Benguela Basins in Angola. The size of the survey area corresponds to an area slightly larger than Massachusetts or Wales. Following the block awards made on December 20th, BP, Total and Statoil have been made operators of blocks 24, 25, 38, 39 and 40. Sonangol is a partner in all of the blocks.

Speeding up decision making

All four oil companies have committed to funding the survey. With early access to 3D seismic data based on the most advanced seismic technology, the operators will benefit from clearer images and more time to plan the exploration wells that they are committed to drill within the next five years.

PGS commitment to Angola

PGS, in association with Sonangol, has a long history of investing in its latest technology in Angola. The Company will work closely with Sonangol to ensure this project not only delivers the data and time savings to the operators but also improves the collective understanding of the basin geology.

PGS already has 2D GeoStreamer data over this area, acquired in 2010, and good quality conventional 3D datasets over blocks 24 and 25 that PGS will re-process. Together these datasets will enable PGS to construct the best possible velocity model for processing of the new 3D GeoStreamer data.

On the job

In February, the PGS Apollo will join the Ramform Valiant and acquisition will continue with both vessels until Q4 2012. PGS teams will start processing data in March, utilizing the latest depth imaging technology and building on their experience of illuminating pre-salt targets in Angola. Together, the two vessels will operate 20 vessel months on this project. Previous PGS press releases in December summarizing vessel backlog included this project.

The Conjugate Margin

The salts basins of Angola have a clear geological link to similar basins offshore Brazil. Recent advances in tectonic reconstruction point to parallels with the prolific pre-salt Santos and Campos areas, and PGS will use its extensive MC library on both sides of the Atlantic to take a closer look at these links. Red outline indicates new MC3D. Blue-purple shaded area is existing PGS MC3D. Purple lines show 2010 GeoStreamer MC2D.

Tags: Petroleum Geo-Services ASA