ViaLogy PLC, an innovator of network-centric, real-time processing platforms
for sensor applications, recently announced that its QuantumRD oil exploration
technology and service has been credited with locating with a major new oil
deposit on the Galba Prospect in South Central Texas. Software-based seismic
interpretation service for oil-and-gas reservoir discovery and
characterization, the technology accurately predicted the size, location and
porosity of three reservoirs.
The successful drilling effort and oil strike based on the ViaLogy analysis
located reservoirs at increasing depths estimated to contain a total of more
than 2 million barrels of recoverable reserves. The company’s contract with Atascosa
Exploration LLC of San Antonio for the Galba Prospect foresees multiple wells
on the lease, now determined to be four or five, targeted on the three
reservoirs and positioned by ViaLogy. The first well, just completed, has
located a reservoir with an oil deposit, which will produce estimated 153,000
barrels of crude oil. Atascoca plans extractions of 50 precent of the
recoverable reserves in first 3 years. Galba Prospect production will begin
immediately.
ViaLogy’s role in the Galba Prospect project included the design and
acquisition of new, high-resolution 3D seismic survey data, integrated
geoseismic and geological assessment, and positioning of the drill site.
ViaLogy collaborated closely with Atascosa’s geology and production team. Oil was
found at the depth and with the porosity ViaLogy predicted in the Upper Wilcox
formation, and all other parameters conformed to the company’s analysis and its
determination of coordinates for the drilling site.
ViaLogy believes that its geoseismic interpretation technology will address a
problem faced by the oil industry worldwide, to avoid drilling dry holes. In
Texas, only four out of 10 exploratory wells, including those drilled with the
aid of seismic technology, find oil or gas in economically producible
quantities, and abortive attempts are costly. According to the U.S. Department
of Energy’s Energy Information Administration statistics, the 2006 average cost
for drilling an on-shore dry hole in the United States exceeded $450,000. The
success of the Galba Project reinforces QuantumRD’s value proposition for
locating oil reservoirs, while lowering the probability of dry
holes.
Working with Atascosa, ViaLogy plans to market the QuantumRD technology and
service initially to independent U.S. exploration companies.
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