Norwegian offshore technology company inApril has won its first commercial agreement, worth US$25-30 million for Venator, its node-based seabed seismic acquisition system.
In development since 2012, the Venator node-on-a-rope system, designed to handle more than 10,000 seismic nodes from one vessel, offers a high level of efficiency and hands-free automation, says inApril.
A letter of intent (LOI) has been signed with the Kazakhstan company GEO Energy Group (GEG) to supply a Venator system, starting with a test project this autumn in the Caspian Sea.
GEG will also tender inApril’s Venator system in bids for upcoming major ocean bottom seismic (OBS) contracts.
Last year GEG acquired the interests of Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) in PGS-Khazar to expand its offshore seismic services within Russia and internationally.
Vidar Hovland, CEO of inApril, said: "We welcome this big step in bringing Venator to market. It marks the beginning of a new generation of independent accessible OBS technology. Oil companies and contractors have long recognized the benefits of the high quality data possible from seabed seismic, but have been put off by the acquisition cost of existing cable and node acquisition technologies.
"Venator is a genuinely disruptive technology. It provides the safe, highly automated, rapid acquisition that companies have been waiting for - at significantly lower cost than existing systems."
Vladimir Telbukhov, CEO of GEG, said: "We are pleased to become an early adopter of inApril’s technology. The Venator system’s obvious benefits in cost, efficiency and safety will be of great help in building our company’s seabed seismic acquisition offering and gaining highly competitive position in the market."