Shearwater to spend two months in Angola working for ExxonMobil

August 26, 2025, by Nadja Skopljak

Norway’s Shearwater GeoServices has secured another contract in Africa, this time for a deepwater ocean bottom node (OBN) seismic survey it will perform for ExxonMobil in Angola.

The two-month project, secured with ExxonMobil’s affiliate Esso Exploration Angola Block 15 Limited, will begin during the third quarter of the year.

Work will be delivered using the SW Tasman vessel and Pearl node system, with SW Gallien deployed as the source vessel.

“Being selected by ExxonMobil to perform this OBN survey in Angola is a real testament to Shearwater’s OBN-platform,” said Irene Waage Basili, CEO of Shearwater. “This award reflects our strong track-record in delivering high-quality OBN surveys and the trust our clients place in us to support their strategic exploration goals.”

In July, ExxonMobil’s Angolan subsidiary and its consortium partners secured an extension of the production sharing contract (PSC) for Block 15 offshore Angola, extending the production period until 2037.

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The announcement comes some two months after French energy giant TotalEnergies awarded Shearwater a contract to perform marine seismic acquisition at an offshore block in São Tomé and Príncipe, West Africa.

As for previous work for ExxonMobil, in February Shearwater reported it had won a contract with ExxonMobil Guyana for a large deepwater 4D OBN seismic survey.