StatoilHydro and Tierra Geophysical have signed a contract for joint development of seismic imaging software technology. The seismic imaging software is expected to improve StatoilHydro’s ability to assess exploration and production targets in areas of complex geology.

Dave Diller, president of Tierra, commented, "We are very pleased to be partnering with StatoilHydro on this project. StatoilHydro is one of the most technically adept companies in the world in geophysics, with broad expertise and experience. StatoilHydro aggressively pursues research, but they also enhance their internal projects by watching outside their company for new technology. Tierra has spent years optimizing our finite difference propagators, and combining that with StatoilHydro's imaging expertise and experience is an ideal marriage of complimentary skills and technologies. Today people may think of Tierra as 'The Forward Modeling Company,' but the same underlying technology has other uses in seismic imaging, which this project will leverage."

Rolf Helland, project manager in the StatoilHydro Exploration research program, commented, "The development of these tools in collaboration with Tierra Geophysical is an important component in our strategic effort to increase our capability to determine improved, reliable images in complex geological settings with large velocity variations. One of the key criteria in such projects is fast imaging turnaround time and this will be achieved using the finite difference core from Tierra. Tierra will be commercializing the software that is developed during the project. The first results from the project, a highly optimized reverse time migration (RTM), are available as both a software product and as services in the third quarter of this year."

Tags: StatoilHydro, Tierra Geophysical