Ascend Geo today announced completion of a successful seismic acquisition pilot project for Saudi Aramco in the Arabian Desert using the cableless Ultra System. The test recorded coincident seismic data on a large scale 3D project with a Sercel cable-based system operated by BGP Arabia. The pilot project is the first of its kind to test the role of cableless acquisition technology in the future of exploration in the Middle East.
With approximately 1,000 ultra channels on the ground performing at the same pace as the cable-based production crew in the 14-day pilot, this project provided a realistic opportunity for evaluating the potential for cableless technology.
The successful project assessed the operational efficiency of different deployment configurations, provided operational metrics to gauge performance, and supplied data quality comparisons with coincident geophone arrays.
Jason Criss, Vice President of Field Support for Ascend, commented, "We are encouraged with the success of the pilot project in demonstrating that the Ultra System works very efficiently in this setting. Simple advantages gained through reduced footprint and operational requirements can easily translate into strategies for ultra efficient high channel count crews that are potentially smaller and more economical than the exclusively cable-based crews at work in Saudi Arabia today."
Mr. Criss went on to say, "This signals a growing momentum for the acceptance of cableless technology in land seismic acquisition, not only in diverse, difficult project areas, but as a realistic technology pathway in achieving efficient mega-projects. We are obviously very excited to move forward quickly to establish the benefits for the marketplace."
