French geophysical services player CGG has begun the acquisition of a large broadband 3D multi-client survey in the pre-salt area of the deepwater Santos Basin offshore Brazil.
CGG said on Thursday that the Santos VIII was the most recent survey in the company’s on-going pre-salt program that delivered seismic data, enabling exploration companies to better evaluate pre-salt opportunities in advance of Brazil’s pre-salt licensing rounds.
Santos VIII covers an area of over 8,000 sq km adjacent to the Peroba, Pau Brasil, and Boumerangue fields.
The resulting BroadSeis data will be imaged with CGG’s full-waveform inversion technology in its Rio de Janeiro Subsurface Imaging Center and merged with the Constellation reprocessing project to provide a regional broadband image of this prolific basin.
Fast-track products will be available in the fourth quarter of 2018, and final products will be available in the second quarter of 2019.
Constellation is a 44,000 sq km project that upgrades CGG’s existing Cluster and Cluster Extension surveys with its latest subsurface imaging technology, including 3D deghosting with bandwidth extension and TTI FWI velocity model building, to provide detailed broadband pre-salt images.
Jean-Georges Malcor , CEO of CGG, said: “The addition of Santos VIII will extend our world-class broadband data coverage in the highly prospective deepwater Santos Basin. It is the latest installment of our contiguous volume of over 94,000 sq km of seismic data and integrated geologic studies that bridge the Santos and Campos Basins to cover the entire pre-salt area.
“These multi-client datasets are an essential resource for oil and gas companies to complete a detailed picture of the complex Santos Basin in advance of Brazil’s future licensing rounds.”
In related news, following the implementation of its financial restructuring plan, CGG recently posted revenues of $401 million for the fourth quarter 2017, up 22% year-on-year and up 25% sequentially.
Group net loss for the fourth quarter of 2017 was $75 million after non-recurring charges (NRC). This compares to a $124.4 million loss in the third quarter 2017 and a $279.8 million loss in 4Q 2016.