Page 47: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2006)

www.seadiscovery.com Marine Technology Reporter 47

Stingray Geophysical, a new spin- out from QinetiQ, was established to develop a commercial fiber optic seis- mic monitoring system which can be deployed permanently on the seabed to provide high quality data on hydrocarbon reservoirs, designed to help oil companies to increase the amount of oil and gas extracted from reservoirs. Stingray Geophysical secured $11.5 million capital from a venture capital consortium led by

Energy Ventures and including

Hydro Technology Ventures and

Chevron Technology Ventures. It was founded by a team which blends ven- ture building experience with oil and gas industry know-how and fiber optic expertise. QinetiQ holds a 19.9% share in Stingray Geophysical.

The company has licensed

QinetiQ's OptaSeis fibre optic tech- nology which will be commercialized to acquire time lapse (4D) seismic surveys using multicomponent (4C) sensor packages permanently deployed on the seabed to provide oil companies with high quality infor- mation about their offshore reser- voirs. 4D-4C seismic is critical for oil companies to improve reservoir man- agement, accelerate production and increase the total reserves that can be extracted from a reservoir. Typically, oil companies currently recover about 35% of reserves in place. Emerging technologies and techniques such as 4D-4C are expected to help push this to 50%, generating significant addi- tional value and helping to maintain hydrocarbon supply around the world. However, current 4D-4C sys- tems, while providing highly valuable data, are expensive and can be unreli- able, primarily because of the prob- lems associated with installing electri- cal components in the sea. It is designed to allow the development of a smaller, less expensive and more reliable permanent seabed system that requires no underwater electronics.

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Maximizing Oil Field Productivity

Using its Quest WROV, Canyon Offshore has recorded a working dive to 9,024 fsw in Lloyd Ridge block 399 in the

Eastern Gulf of Mexico, while operating under contract to an operator. The Quest, an electric work class ROV (WROV) was deployed to perform pre-lay route surveys for 8-inch and 10- inch JVC flow lines, and to conduct array integrity checks. The dive, conducted in depths of 9,000 ft. and deeper, lasted 30 hours, during which time the vehicle performed all tasks effi- ciently and without interruption. The Quest is a new generation

ROV depth rated to 10,000 fsw (2,050 meters) and adaptable for depths to 19,500 ft. (6,000 m).

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Quest WROV Completes Working Dive at

Over 9,000 ft.

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