Barents activity remains high

A busy 2013 seismic acquisition season is continuing in the Barents Sea, with CGG announcing the completion of its second Broadseis campaign and Dolphin Geophysical launching a new survey.

The increase in seismic acquisition activity in the area, which includes a survey by the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, and a joint campaign by ENI and Rosneft in the Russian sector, follows the agreement of boundary lines between Norway and Russia and the anticipated inclusion of new areas of the Barents Sea in Norway’s 23rd licensing round. 

New discoveries have also prompted activity. Last month (September) operator OMV made the Wisting Central oil discovery in license PL537 in the Hoop-Maud basin of the Barents Sea. 

As a result of the Wisting discovery, Dolphin Geophysical, in association with Searcher Seismic, said it had brought forward a campaign scheduled to start on the Maud Basin South area in April, next year. The campaign, a 3300sq km 3D SHarp BroadBand multi-client seismic survey, using the Polar Duchess vessel, has now started. 

CGG said today it had completed a second BroadSeisTM multi-client survey covering 2300sq km in the Barents Sea offshore Norway. 

CGG said fast-track processing would mean some data would be available by the end of 2013, with the final processed products available by August 2014.

The area covered is in the southeastern Barents Sea, adjacent to the recent eastward extension of Norwegian territory, as a result of a border agreement between Norway and Russia. 

CGG’s first BroadSeis multi-client survey in the Barents targeted the Halten Terrace. 

In July, Eni and Rosneft started seismic operations in the in the Fedynsky and Central Barents license areas of the Russian Barents Sea. Its aim was to acquire 9959km of 2D seismic over the two license areas.

The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) is near to completing acquisition of 12,800km of 2D seismic in the northeastern part of the Barents Sea. 

Acquisition activity started in July, using the Artemis Atlantic vessel, and was due to complete in mid-October.

In 2011 and 2012, the NPD had also acquired seismic in the sea areas off Jan Mayen and in the southeastern part of the Barents Sea. 

Seismic packages from these areas were offered for sale earlier this year. By mid-September, 21 companies had purchased the seismic packages.