ConocoPhillips has awarded Norway-based survey outfit Wavefield Inseis a contract to provide “permanent” seabed sensors to monitor its field’s reservoirs in the North Sea.

Wavefield business Optoplan aims to install the “seabed seismic” in 2010, although the installation contract has yet to be awarded and is understood to require specialist marine handling equipment.

ConocoPhillips is gearing up to partly “re-develop” Ekofisk, for which a slew of recent contract awards have been made. The oil company’s extensive uses of offshore operations integrated with onshore controls suggests Conoco’s Stavanger control centre could well be provided with real-time data on the migration of oil, gas and water in Ekofisk’s reservoir.

“ConocoPhillips can chose if they wish to monitor from the platform or employ a high-speed link to shore,” Wavefield chief financial officer Erik Hokholt told Scandoil.com from Houston.

“That would be in the future for (Conoco),” Hokholt said.

The cost of the seabed monitoring for Conoco will be upwards of $40 million, judging by the price of similar survey equipment layouts Wavefield has communicated to investors in the past.

It is understood Wavefield will install an undersea cable to the Ekofisk platform complex, but that bidding is still open for the dredging needed to install the company’s fibre-optic sensing kit in 1.5 metres of seabed.

The Ekofisk stake out for Wavefield’s grid will be the largest yet for a permanent installation at 64 square kilometres. It’s the first contract of its kind for fibre-optic sensing technology and was won in tough competition with rivals.

Other companies that have similar technology and were possible bidders on this project are: Ion, PGS, and Sercel, a source told Scandoil.com.

“The competition was tough,” Hokhold said, adding, “But this is the proof that it works.”

CORRECTION: Scandoil.com reported TGS-NOPEC also bid on the Ekofisk project for ConocoPhillips, but this was erroneous and we apologize.
ws@scandoil.com

Tags: ConocoPhillips, Wavefield InSeis ASA