CGG Successfully Completes First Full-Scale TopSeis survey in Barents Sea

CGG has successfully completed acquisition of the first-ever full-scale commercial survey using TopSeis™, its latest offshore broadband seismic acquisition and imaging solution.

The inaugural TopSeis survey was commissioned by Lundin Norway AS over the Loppa High in the Barents Sea and is designed to better image a complex carbonate reservoir located at depths of between 400 to 2000 m below the seabed. Until now, the specific challenges of imaging these targets have been unresolved by conventional broadband methods.

TopSeis uniquely deploys seismic sources directly above the streamers in a “split-spread” acquisition geometry. This provides the valuable zero-offset and near-offset coverage that is missing from conventional 3D towed-streamer seismic and together with CGG’s advanced processing technology results in a step-change in the imaging of shallow-to-intermediate depth targets.

Halvor Jahre, Exploration Manager, Lundin Norway AS, said: “Developing TopSeis has been a win-win for Lundin and CGG. It has resulted in an imaging solution for Lundin that addresses the specific challenges on the Loppa High, and has also resulted in a new promising technology for the industry. One unexpected benefit we have already seen is that the TopSeis water bottom resolution is unprecedented for seismic acquisition and is comparable with existing multibeam sonar data.”

Jean-Georges Malcor, CEO, CGG, said: “TopSeis is the result of several years of close collaboration with Lundin Norway to develop, test and industrialize this revolutionary new concept. We look forward to the results of this first full-scale survey to solve the imaging challenges and deliver new insights into the reservoirs of the Loppa High.”

Image: During the TopSeis survey in the Barents Sea the CGG Geo Caspian (seen in the foreground) positions the seismic sources directly over the streamer spread towed by the CGG Geo Coral (background) (image courtesy of CGG). (Source: CGG)