OFFSHORE TECHNOLOGY — Marine geophysical services company Shearwater GeoServices has secured two contracts to conduct 3D seismic surveys for clients in West Africa.

The first contract, awarded by Genel Energy, involves survey works in the Sidi Moussa licence located offshore Morocco.

Intended to materially de-risk the prospectively of the Sidi Moussa licence, the survey will involve dual, FlexiSource and multi-azimuth shooting for appraisal and exploration targets. The survey will procure a data-set equivalent of more than 3,500km².

Scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year, the programme will be completed in three to four months.

Shearwater signed the second contract for five months with an undisclosed client engaged in West Africa.

Under this contract, Shearwater will carry out two surveys this year covering a combined area of nearly 10,000km². Work will begin this quarter.

The Polar Marquis vessel will be deployed for this contract and one of the surveys will be carried out by FlexiSource to reduce wide-tow large-survey acquisition time.

Shearwater CEO Irene Basili said: “We are excited to work for Genel in Morocco where our vessels and crews have worked before.

“When also adding the award from the undisclosed client – and the recent award from TGS in the North Sea – our backlog has increased significantly and we have expanded our client list.

“The seismic market shows signs of strengthening, and we expect this to materialise into more awards in the time to come.”

Shearwater GeoServices, which is jointly owned by GC Rieber Shipping and Rasmussengruppen, has a fleet of four modern seismic vessels.