7 Apr 2011 08:00
ViaLogy Contracted to Support Oilfield Redevelopment Using QuantumRD
London, April 7, 2011. ViaLogy (LSE: VIY) announces the signing of a new contract to apply the company's proprietary QuantumRD platform technology to the redevelopment of a major field in Texas. This is ViaLogy's second contract with the client, who is based in Oklahoma and is one of the largest private independent exploration and production firms in the United States.
Redevelopment is an increasing trend in US onshore exploration. It involves extraction from older abandoned fields where oil resources remain, especially in deeper tight rock carbonates in which determining porosity is an essential factor in well success. At high per-barrel prices production from such fields is of increasing importance, as is the applicability of technologies such as QuantumRD. Under this new contract ViaLogy's work will take place in Permian Basin stratigraphic formations abandoned earlier because they were too tight, i.e. where available seismic analysis technologies could not detect production-grade porosities. QuantumRD analysis enables porosity estimates which, in conjunction with conventional techniques, introduces a critical risk-reduction capability in positioning wells. In addition, these formations are difficult to analyze because the vertical thickness of potentially productive zones is often below seismic imaging resolution. As most of these complex formations are stratigraphic, standard offset spacings for new wells in relation to producing wells on the field do not work. Well locations need to be de-risked and sized independently. QuantumRD will be applied to 50 square kilometers to analyze Devonian, Wolfcamp, Strawn and Atoka formations between 8,000 and 13,000 feet. ViaLogy deliverables will be used by the client to support multiple well drillings.
The Permian Basin in west Texas holds 24 per cent of US oil reserves and has been producing since the 1920s. This is the same type of work - unlocking hydrocarbons in tight rock dolomite formations - that the company is doing in its previously announced contract with a supermajor.
ViaLogy CEO, Dr. Robert Dean commented, "This project supports full-scale lease and field development. It recognizes QuantumRD's geology-agnostic capability to provide porosity and fluid properties away from existing wellbores and as a de-risking capability beyond that offered by conventional technologies."
For further information contact:
ViaLogy PLC
Terry Bond, Chairman - UK & Europe +44 (0) 1235 834 734
Nominated Advisor to ViaLogy PLC (Seymour Pierce)
Mark Percy / Catherine Leftley, Corporate Finance +44 (0) 207 107 8000
Katie Ratner / Jeremy Stephenson, Corporate Broking +44 (0) 207 107 8000
About ViaLogy:
ViaLogy provides reservoir characterization, geophysical imaging and hydrocarbon sizing services to global oil and gas customers based on proprietary, patented active signal processing technology. ViaLogy's QuantumRD platform assists clients in de-risking prospects over a broad range of subsurface lithologies and complex stratigraphies to generate drilling targets, position offsets and enhance recovery.
ViaLogy's core technology rapidly and accurately detects weak signals buried in high noise background and clutter, and is applicable to active/passive seismic, electromagnetic and magneto telluric data. By exploiting normally disregarded noise variations induced by changes in porosity, fluid presence and permeability across the formation, and adding computer-designed noise to the data, ViaLogy is able to amplify subtle noise variations to enhance areal and depth resolution in complex lithologies that are not achievable through conventional means. For more information on ViaLogy, visit www.vialogy.com.