PGS Ramform Sovereign will acquire a 3D seismic survey in Malaysia
Vessel owner and survey group PGS will deploy Ramform Sovereign to undertake a new seismic survey offshore Sabah, Malaysia in Q1 2023
This comes after PGS secured funding to expand its multi-client 3D seismic database of an offshore area of interest for future oil and gas exploration and developments. Ramform Sovereign is scheduled to begin acquiring this seismic data, covering 3,500 km2 over the Sabah platform, in January 2023 and to complete the project in March.
This survey is the sixth phase of multi-client acquisitions in the prolific Sabah region, which has more than 47,000 km2 of high-quality 3D seismic data, making it one of the world’s largest multi-client acquisition projects.
This information helps state-run energy group Petronas and international energy companies such as Shell improve oil and gas reserves through exploration in this basin.
“The Northwest Sabah basin is a proven petroleum system with producing fields such as Kikeh, Gumusut Kakap and Malikai with enormous potential, yet this is still ranked as one of the least explored basins in the world,” said PGS president and chief executive Rune Olav Pedersen.
“Acquiring multi-client data with our Ramform-designed vessels and GeoStreamer technology provides high-quality seismic data to support the energy companies in exploring
this prolific region,” he said.
“By combining all the phases of the Sabah MultiClient programme, we can offer a regional data set that improves understanding of the petroleum systems. In addition, the data sets allow for prospect scale analysis and leads within the entire offshore Sabah basin.”
Petronas, through Malaysia Petroleum Management, is using these datasets to unravel the full potential of the deepwater area in the Northwest Sabah basin and the information is available to energy companies seeking to participate in future exploration concession bidding rounds in Malaysia.
Earlier in December 2022, PGS and another Oslo, Norway-listed geoscience company TGS announced a partnership to expand multi-client 3D seismic information in the Santos Sul area offshore Brazil.
PGS survey ship 2016-built Ramform Tethys will mobilised to start the survey in January 2023 and is scheduled to complete this 15,000-km2 project in August 2023. This data will be used to expand exploration in this frontier and deepwater basin.
The survey covers open acreage made available by Brazilian authorities via the new permanent-offer mechanism and the exploration blocks recently awarded in the 17th concession bid round.
“The Santos Sul multi-client survey expands PGS and TGS 3D data coverage in Brazil and will provide high-quality data essential for the exploration of these newly awarded blocks,” said Mr Pedersen.
“The /TGS collaboration in this portion of the Santos basin also provides coverage over a wider area available through the permanent offer licensing round.”
TGS chief executive Kristian Johansen said this multi-client survey will “provide invaluable data and actionable insights into new and emerging plays outside the pre-salt, allowing our clients to derisk their exploration activities in the region for active and future licensing rounds.”
In Norway, Carbon Transition subsidiary Axxis Multi Client and CGG will reprocess the seismic data from the Utsira ocean bottom node (OBN) survey in the North Sea. This is the largest ultra-high resolution OBN survey conducted in the North Sea, covering approximately 2,000 km2 of data in an area with existing producing oil and gas fields and several undeveloped discoveries and prospects.
Scheduled to start in December 2022, the project will deliver a priority area in Q3 2023 and final data for the complete survey in 2024.
