Representatives from Magseis visit Sonardyne HQ to discuss the requirements of their next generation seismic node positioning equipment – from left, Chis Baxter, Magseis; Trevor Barnes, Sonardyne; Liam Flood, Magseis; Ciaran Moore, Magseis; Stuart French, Magseis; and Jonathan Snook, Magseis (photo: Sonardyne)

Subsea technology manufacturer, Sonardyne International Ltd., UK, has announced that Norwegian seismic services company, Magseis, has awarded it a major contract for seabed node acoustic positioning technology to support an expansion in its deep water survey activities.

The equipment ordered includes a large quantity of Sonardyne’s newly developed SST 6 (Small Seismic Transponder 6), and associated vessel-based acoustic positioning system, Ranger 2 USBL (Ultra-Short BaseLine). All the hardware will be installed and operated by Magseis’ latest crew which is scheduled to be fully operational during the second quarter of 2018.

Seismic surveillance surveys conducted using stationary nodes deployed on the seabed are becoming increasingly commonplace as geophysicists generally agree that this method delivers the highest possible definition reservoir imagery.

However, any uncertainty in node positions can distort these pictures and make the behaviour of the underlying reservoirs more difficult to interpret. Sonardyne’s SST devices are attached to cables or ropes adjacent to each node, and when used in conjunction with Ranger 2 installed on a surface vessel, overcome this problem by providing high quality, repeatable positioning during node deployment and when landed on the seabed.

Introduced onto the market this summer, Sonardyne’s new SST 6 makes use of the company’s patented wideband digital acoustic signal processing architecture to deliver substantial performance gains over the previous generation SST, and ensures robust positioning performance in the most challenging of operational environments. Innovations such as built-in, Near Field Communications (NFC) technology allows SST 6 transponders to be checked and programmed without human intervention, supporting Magseis’ continued vision for fully automated node handling and efficient back-deck Ocean Bottom Seismic (OBS) operations.

Speaking about their major investment, Liam Flood, Navigation Manager at Magseis in Oslo says, “We have collaborated with Sonardyne to provide the acoustic positioning infrastructure for our OBS operations since our company was founded in 2009. The scale and capabilities of our vessel operations have increased considerably since then; Sonardyne’s latest generation platform, SST 6, will allow us to deploy our seismic nodes quickly and accurately in all water depths up to 3,000 metres.”

Shaun Dunn, Global Business Manager for Exploration and Surveillance at Sonardyne says, “Continuous evolution and improvement of our acoustic positioning technologies is a strong conviction held by everyone at Sonardyne so we’re naturally delighted that Magseis has again chosen to place their confidence in us, and the performance of our latest products to meet the ever increasing demands of the marine seismic sector.”

Tags: Magseis, Sonardyne International Ltd. UK