PGS finds work in Africa while its job in Brazil gets postponed

Oslo-headquartered marine geophysical company PGS has secured a new assignment for one of its seismic acquisition vessels offshore Africa with an undisclosed firm. In addition, the start of operations in Brazil for another one of its ships has been delayed.

While revealing a contract award for a 3D exploration acquisition contract offshore Africa, PGS explains that its Ramform Titan class vessel is expected to mobilise for the survey in the fourth quarter of 2023, subject to final approvals. This programme has a total duration of 4-5 months.

The 2013-built Ramform Titan seismic vessel is fully integrated with GeoStreamer technology and has 24 streamer reels, 16 abreast with a further 8 in a second row. The ship’s back deck layout is augmented by six independent source array handling booms, enabling faster deployment and recovery.

Rune Olav Pedersen, President & CEO of PGS, commented: “We are very pleased with this contract award, which improves our visibility into 1H 2024. There is increasing exploration interest in Africa and this award builds on the recent success of our Titan class vessels in this region.” 

Meanwhile, PGS confirms that it has been informed of a possible further delay in receiving permits for a large 4D contract survey its Ramform Victory vessel planned to undertake for Petrobras over the Barracuda-Caratinga field in the Campos basin offshore Brazil later in 3Q 2023. Originally, the contract was expected to begin in 2Q 2023.

As a result of yet another delay, the steam to Brazil has been bumped to early 4Q 2023. The vessel will initially acquire data on an ongoing highly pre-funded MultiClient programme until all permits are in place for the contracted 4D survey.

The mobilisation for the 4D contract survey is expected towards year-end, with an unchanged contract scope. With a length of 86.2 m and a width of 39.6 m, the 1999-built Ramform Victory seismic vessel is capable of towing up to 18 streamers.