Norwegian Ocean Bottom Seismic specialist turns profitable

Norwegian Ocean Bottom Seismic services provider Magseis saw its revenues rise to $19.4 million in the second quarter, boosted by work in Saudi Arabia and Norway.

The company said its survey in with the Artemis Athene vessel in the Red Sea, being done for Saudi Aramco, along with OBN work for ConocoPhillips in the Eldfisk field, off Norway, lifted the revenue compared to prior year’s 2Q revenue of $7.7 million.

Also, Magseis reported profit of $3.3 million for the quarter, as compared to a net loss of almost $4 million a year ago.

The company’s CEO Idar Horstad, who described the results stronger than expected, said Magseis was in talks to charter a new vessel. Also it added that

Looking ahead, Magseis sees the Middle East, especially the Red Sea area where it is working with the Artemis Athene vessel, as an important place to be.

While the company is expected to complete the current survey in the Red Sea in the third quarter, it will work to remain in the region.

„As we have stated previously, this region holds significant potential for OBS and we are working closely with our partner BGP towards securing further work in the Red Sea to follow on from the ongoing project.“

Magseis added that its mobile ROV crew was also delivering a strong performance.

„This crew is participating in several tenders for late 2017/2018 and we see that our strategy of working together with our clients to facilitate low-cost OBS across a variety of applications is really attracting interest,“ the company said,

OBS market growing

“Production of equipment and recruitment of resources for our second, high-capacity cable vessel is ongoing and we hope to conclude the vessel selection process soon,“ the company added.

According to the CEO, the production of the 6,000 new MASS nodes is underway and will be ready by Q1 2018. With a total of 14,000 MASS nodes Magseis will be one of the two largest suppliers of OBS node technology, the CEO said.

MASS is an abbreviation for Marine Autonomous Seismic System, Magseis’ OBS acquisition system is based on the principles of small, autonomous sensor capsules  inserted into an optimized steel cable.

Providing a comment on the outlook for the ocean bottom seismic market Magseis said: “OBS market tender volumes continues at the higher pace that we have observed since the beginning of 2017. As we expand our capacity into 2018 – growing to a MASS node inventory of more than 14,000 nodes, our industry leading technology and strong operating track record places Magseis in a unique position to capture a substantial share of the OBS market. On this basis, we will work to deliver on our vision to bring down acquisition costs for our clients and re-shape the OBS market as we grow.”

Offshore Energy Today Staff