Magseis Fairfield clinches two OBN seismic projects in Gulf of Mexico
Oslo-listed seismic data acquisition company Magseis Fairfield has secured two deepwater ocean bottom node projects in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.
Rem Saltire – Image source: Rem Offshore
The company said Friday it had been awarded two consecutive deepwater ocean bottom node (OBN) projects in the Gulf of Mexico by an undisclosed repeat customer.
The surveys will be carried out in the Mississippi Canyon and Garden Banks areas and will cover a total area of more than 900 square kilometers.
According to Magseis Fairfield, work is scheduled to start in the second quarter of 2020 and is expected to take approximately 100 days.
“The award of these two projects demonstrates our technology leadership position in the Gulf of Mexico. This ZXPLR crew has been in high demand, and the award strengthens our 2020 backlog significantly,” says Carel Hooijkaas, CEO of Magseis Fairfield.
The ZXPLR crew led by the REM Saltire node handling vessel was established in the Spring of 2019 and has since been in continuous demand for projects in the Gulf of Mexico, Magseis Fairfield said. According to the company, this contract extends the project coverage for this crew through August 2020.
The ZXPLR node, per the company, is a hybrid system capable of dual-mode deployment in both deep and shallow water. According to Magseis Fairfield, it is designed to simplify node management, maintenance, and inventory control, reducing overall costs by supporting multiple operations. ZXPLR can be deployed with a passive rope or by ROV.
Magseis Fairfield ZXPLR node – Image by Magseis Fairfield
Dutch geophysical services provider Fugro has entered into an agreement to acquire CGG’s 40 percent shareholding in Seabed Geosolutions.
Illustration; Seabed Geosolutions’ Hugin Explorer; Source: Flickr; Author: nz_willowherb – under the CC BY-NC 2.0 license
Fugro said on Monday that this would terminate the Seabed Geosolutions’ joint venture agreement effective December 30 in exchange for a cash consideration of $35 million, paid by CGG before year-end 2019.
According to the company, the proceeds will be used to lower Fugro’s outstanding debt position and strengthen Seabed Geosolutions’ balance sheet.
Fugro remains fully committed to divest the Seabed Geosolutions business, which is a non-core asset held for sale.
It is expected that this transaction, which will result in Fugro becoming the sole owner of Seabed Geosolutions, will facilitate the divestment process.
It is worth noting that CGG agreed to transfer its 40 percent shareholding in Seabed Geosolutions to Fugro before the end of the first quarter of 2020, which is in line with CGGs strategy to exit the data acquisition business.
ExxonMobil said that the acquisition included 1.2 million acres in the North Marakia Offshore block, located approximately five miles offshore Egypt’s northern coast in the Herodotus basin. The remaining 543,000 acres is in the North East El Amriya Offshore block in the Nile Delta.
Mike Cousins, senior vice president of exploration and new ventures at ExxonMobil, said: “These awards strengthen our exploration portfolio in the Eastern Mediterranean. We look forward to working with the government and deploying our proven expertise and advanced technology.”
According to the company, ExxonMobil will operate both blocks and hold a 100 percent interest. Operations, including the acquisition of seismic data, are scheduled to begin in 2020.
Hesham Elamroussy, chairman and managing director of ExxonMobil Egypt, added: “ExxonMobil has been a partner in Egypt’s growth for more than 115 years, and these awards reaffirm our commitment to pursuing high-quality opportunities in the country.”
The awards add upstream interests to ExxonMobil’s long-standing downstream presence in Egypt, where it has been a fuel, lubricants, and specialties marketer since 1902.
