The additional survey capacity provided by the MV Sasha will help to meet increasing demand from energy companies keen to use the emgs technique. This method identifies subsurface resistivity anomalies, including commercial-scale hydrocarbon reservoirs, without drilling a well. On leaving Trondheim, Norway, at the end of November, the vessel will be positioned to start a long-duration survey for a new customer of emgs.
The vessel joins two others in the emgs fleet, the MV Geo Angler, which has been in continuous service with emgs since mid-2003, and the MV Atlantic Guardian, also in continuous service since being commissioned in May 2005. The new vessel will be operated by seasoned emgs crew members with wide experience of the survey techniques gained over three years of operations.
Mobilisation of the vessel has been facilitated by the modularity of the latest proprietary emgs survey equipment, which has been specifically designed to be rapidly deployed on any suitable dynamically positioned vessel. Onboard processing capabilities ensure real-time data quality control and preprocessing of data that contribute to fast delivery and turnaround of data by the expert interpretation team at emgs' Trondheim headquarters.
"Everyone at emgs is excited about the launch of our third survey vessel. It underscores the robust commercial success of our seabed-logging technology," said Erik Skogen, vice president of operations at emgs. "We pride ourselves on having developed custom-designed equipment that can be quickly mobilised to almost any dynamically positioned vessel. This enables us to deliver cost-effective and operationally efficient marine electromagnetic survey solutions to oil and gas companies anywhere in the world. In mobilising the MV Sasha we are continuing our track record of excellent response to our customers' requirements. The vessel will deliver the additional capacity they are asking for, while maintaining our high standards of service. In this way, we intend to give our customers a competitive advantage in finding commercial hydrocarbons in offshore basins."
Over 100 seabed-logging surveys have been conducted in the three years since emgs recorded its first commercial survey. The technique has been used by more than 20 oil companies, including Apache, Eni, Petrobras, Shell, Statoil and Woodside, in water depths ranging from 3100 to less than 200 m, and in regions as varied as offshore west Africa and Brazil and the Mediterranean, North and South China seas. In every area where a well has been drilled, data acquired from wellbore surveys has corroborated emgs' survey predictions.
"Our seabed-logging technology is changing the economics of finding hydrocarbons," said Eidesmo. "Not every promising structure seen by seismic surveys contains oil, but when the additional information provided by seabed-logging indicates hydrocarbons, the combination of the two techniques offers compelling evidence of commercial reserves. Operators are using seabed-logging data to bid with increased confidence during licensing rounds, to improve their prospect ranking and to make better-informed drill-or-drop decisions during appraisals."