Full scale North Sea trials proves game changing seabed seismic system
The Norwegian seismic equipment supplier inApril AS announces that it on 17-23 August successfully carried out a full-scale sea trial of its fully integrated node-based seabed seismic acquisition system, Venator. The company says the trial confirmed that Venator is the first seabed-based exploration tool to provide data far superior to conventional towed streamer solutions at competitive terms.
The system, which features fully hands-free handling and flexible node spacing at unprecedented speeds, was tested in 110m water depth over a part of the Edvard Grieg field (PL 338), operated by Lundin Petroleum, in the Norwegian North Sea. The node used was inApril’s A3000 node, suitable for both deep and shallow water operations.
The trial repeatedly demonstrated ‘node-on-a-rope’ deployment speeds of 5 – 6 knots and retrieval speeds at 3 – 4 knots in these water depths, enabling up to 20 km² full-azimuth data acquisition per day in exploration mode.
Preliminary results confirm the excellent data quality also shown by previous sea trials, only achievable by seabed data acquisition. Data processing will be carried out in the coming weeks.
According to numerous industry executives and analysts, more efficient node-based ocean bottom seismic will provide the optimal solution for oil companies looking to increase reserves at reasonable costs via targeted exploration and reservoir characterization data acquisition.
Vidar Hovland, CEO of inApril, said: ‘The market has been waiting to see if we can deliver what we promised. Now we have documented that Venator offers a game-changing, cost-effective, and fully automated exploration and reservoir characterization tool. The system is flexible and can be containerized for mobilization to a variety of vessels for a range of offshore seismic applications and water depths.’