16 Apr 2012 07:00
SUCCESSFUL TEXAS OIL WELL DRILLED
USING VIALOGY ANALYSIS
London, Monday, April 16 2012 - ViaLogy PLC (LSE: VIY) announces today that its client Atascosa Exploration of San Antonio has successfully drilled another oil well at the Galba Field in South Central Texas using analysis provided by ViaLogy technology. This is the third commercially successful well Atascosa has drilled in the area using the new technology's recommended co-ordinates.
Under a 2009 contract with Atascosa, ViaLogy had mapped hydrocarbon reservoirs in the three upper Wilcox sandstone formations and provided multiple drilling locations targeting sands at varying depths in the field. Atascosa selected and drilled the new well in the Bartosh formation from its backlog of ViaLogy drilling locations. Oil was found at 3040 feet depth and with the predicted porosity values. Logging and sidewell core analyses have confirmed ViaLogy's predictive analysis and its determination of coordinates for the drilling site. Independent contractor Weatherford's core analysis showed 12 contiguous feet of net oil pay. Significantly, reservoir features were determined below the resolution of the 3-D seismic data using ViaLogy's processing which broadens the useable seismic spectra for both low and high frequencies by extracting and exploiting weak signal data normally discarded as noise.
Under its contract with Atascosa, ViaLogy will receive a 5% Back-In-After-Payout (BIAPO) working interest. This means that the Royalty will be paid on the net amount after drilling and production expenses have been covered.
Commenting on this latest well success Atascosa's Chief Executive, John Mullins, said: "We're very pleased with this drilling and its confirmation of ViaLogy predictions. Based on their recommendations we have increased our lease positions at the prospect. The accuracy of the predictions enabled us to secure approvals from the Texas Railroad Commission (TRRC) to drill additional offset wells at 10 acre spacings. This helps to maximise recovery, and to depart from the TRRC standard field rules that mandate 40 acre spacing between wells. It also ensures we get the best possible financial value from our leases."
ViaLogy CEO Robert Dean said, "Atascosa was an early adopter of our technology and has been a great partner for us. Together we have been focused on discovering pockets of porosity and hydrocarbon in turbidites and sandstone laminates that are heavily faulted and compartmentalized. While hydrocarbon deposits in these areas may be small by supermajor standards, they are complex and similar in many respects to the much larger fields we are working in now. What's also really important is that they have given us the opportunity to exercise and stress our technology to find hydrocarbon reservoirs below the vertical resolution of 3-D seismic. QuantumRD's capability to characterize such hard-to-image formations and complex stratigraphy is something that is central to our current onshore and offshore projects with the large firms."
Robert Dean added, "We have made good progress in our discussions on new commercial services contracts for QuantumRD with O&G majors and should be able soon to comment publicly."
For further information contact:
ViaLogy
Terry Bond, Chairman - UK & Europe +44 (0) 1235-834734
Nominated Advisor to ViaLogy PLC (Seymour Pierce)
Mark Percy/Katie Ratner, Corporate Finance +44 (0) 20-7107-8000
Katie Ratner/David Banks, Corporate Broking +44 (0) 20-7107-8000
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