Statoil awards seismic deal for Mozambique, Tanzania

Top story from 24 November 2009, Week 47 Issue 316

Statoil has awarded Bergen Oilfield Services (BOS) two large frontier seismic surveys offshore East Africa.

BOS announced the award on November 20, describing the work off Mozambique and Tanzania to be “large frontier 3-D surveys.”

BOS’ vice president of marketing and sales, Jan Sovik, said the award was a “strong confirmation of the excellence of BOS and our services … this double award from Statoil reflects our strong reputation of excellent geophysical services.”

The Norwegian seismic contractor said the BOS Arctic, following the completion of work in West Africa, would carry out the work. Before working in West Africa, the ship was in the Gulf of Mexico.

BOS Arctic is working offshore Guinea for Hyperdynamics and, as of November 13, had gathered 1,200 km of seismic. This is being partially processed onshore and completed in Norway. The work began at the end of October and is scheduled to finish in mid-January 2010.

Hyperdynamics CEO, Ray Leonard, described the quality of the data from BOS Arctic as “excellent.”

Statoil has a number of offshore interests in Mozambique and Tanzania. The state-owned Norwegian company has Block 2 in Tanzania, in water depths of 400 metres to 3,000 metres. The first exploration period, which began in 2007, runs for four years and includes a 2-D seismic commitment. The second and third phases require one well per period.

The company said it had acquired 6,200 km of 2-D seismic in the first quarter of 2008 and the processed data was delivered in January. First drilling could occur in 2011.

Statoil also has 90% stakes in Areas 2 and 5 in Mozambique, which have water depths ranging from 300 metres to more than 2,000 metres.

Anadarko Petroleum is set to spud a well on its Windjammer prospect, in Mozambique’s Area 1, in December with the Belford Dolphin drillship.

Source: http://www.newsbase.com/newsbasearchive/news.jsp

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