Dominique Gehant , CGG VERITAS
Release Date: 0000-00-00
It seems that the last three years have been good for your Mexican operations. In 2009, the Alizé high end 3D vessel began operating; in 2010, you received a contract extension to conduct a WAZ survey… Can you please tell our readers how different CGGVeritas Mexico is compared to 5 years ago?We have been present in Mexico for 25 years working exclusively for Pemex. This year, due to the volume of activity with the Alizé and the wide-azimuth (WAZ) survey, Pemex has become one of our top clients worldwide. As you mentioned, at the end of 2009 we won a large contract for marine acquisition and have been operating the Alizé - which is one of the most advanced seismic vessels in the industry fleet available today – here for the past two years. This contract will run until the end of 2013.Furthermore, in August 2010 Pemex awarded us the contract extension to conduct a WAZ survey, which is due to be completed in the next couple of months. CGGVeritas introduced the WAZ technique several years ago on the US side of the Gulf of Mexico. The seismic vessels are deployed in a particular configuration to record a wider range of azimuthal coverage. As a result, the seismic image of the geological structures lying below the salt bodies is significantly improved. Pemex saw the benefits of applying this technology in an area in the north of the Mexican side of the Gulf of Mexico, where large salt beds cover potentially important hydrocarbon resources similar to the ones discovered on the US side. We believe it is the largest WAZ survey to have been acquired worldwide, and we are very proud of having acquired it for Pemex. The results have been quite promising.Yes indeed – the seismic images are of very high quality. Pemex’s exploration people are very happy with the results so far. It is still in the processing and interpretation stages and it will take some time to fully evaluate the results.
What have been the biggest challenges in order to operate both projects?
Our main challenge was meeting the very strict and demanding contract criteria as we are using some of the most advanced acquisition configurations for long periods of time. We are proud to say that the Alizé has notched up more than two years of continuous operations without any major HSE incidents.!
As you mentioned, CGGVeritas has been in this country for 25 years. How do you think the company has changed the seismic and marine services in the Mexican oil and gas industry?
We entered the seismic business in Mexico with advanced 2D and 3D land crews. Since then, we expanded our services for Pemex, offering seismic data processing at the beginning of the nineties and reservoir characterization services a few years later. In the past few years, we have also conducted a few conventional marine seismic surveys before we won this multi-year marine contract for a dedicated seismic vessel. I would say that during this time our company has consolidated its position in Mexico and today we can rightly claim to be the leading seismic services company in the country. We have not only expanded the scope of our services but also introduced leading-edge technology to Mexico. For instance, in marine, all our seismic ships are equipped with the latest high-end technology such as the Sentinel® solid streamers and the Nautilus® streamer-steering devices, all developed and manufactured by our equipment division, Sercel. As for seismic data processing and reservoir characterization services, we have continuously introduced new algorithms and workflows over the past 10 years for the benefit of our client. During the same timeframe, we invested locally, by bringing equipment and experts into the country and, most importantly, by hiring and developing young talent - geologists and geophysicists - in Mexico. In fact some of them have been very successful and have taken up important positions within our local operations and we´re pleased to see that others have moved to senior positions in our operations worldwide.
Is finding the right people one of the main challenges you face?
For sure, finding talented people for our Mexican operations is one of our main challenges. Fortunately we´ve managed to maintain a good balance between international and local experts and technicians to run our Mexican operations up to our international standards of safety, quality and efficiency. We are very active in developing our relationships with Mexican Universities by supporting them for their academic programs and offering opportunities for their students to get hands-on experience early on in their studies either in the field or in the office. We mostly hire students and train them locally in our facilities before sending them to our international operations to strengthen their skills.
Coming back to CGGVeritas and the industry, it is a fact that the era of “easy oil” is over. Pemex is more active in doing more E&P and pushing to finally go into deep waters. What are the future opportunities that you see in a country like Mexico and what sort of services will CGGVeritas offer in the future?
The marine contract I spoke about earlier is definitely in a significant frontier area for exploring the deep offshore provinces in Mexico! We are currently processing large areas of this program in our Houston Imaging Center with technology specifically developed for the US GOM projects. It’s challenging as the geology in this part of the Gulf is quite different from what we are used to in the Northern part.However, we should not forget that there is still a lot of oil in place in the areas that Pemex is already exploiting onshore and in shallow waters such as the well known Cantarell giant field. As you said, the easy oil era is over. We therefore need to use increasingly sophisticated technologies not only to overcome growing challenges in exploration but also to help reservoir engineers exploit and optimize the existing fields. We believe that the seismic industry will play a key role in the future by adapting the techniques used in exploration to improve the knowledge of the reservoir with higher-resolution images and improve reservoir characterization in terms of lithology, porosity, fracturing, etc.We also see opportunities for bringing in technologies to monitor reservoir production by repeating 3D surveys over time, a technique we call 4D or Time-Lapse monitoring. As far as I understand, Pemex has not yet done any 4D seismic monitoring surveys and we are definitely interested in proposing our services as we have developed proprietary technologies and gained significant experience in this field all over the world.Another area of opportunity - where Pemex has started to take part - is the exploration and characterization of shale gas reservoirs. Pemex has successfully completed a few pilot wells in the north of the country and announced a large program to develop these unconventional resources. It is a very challenging area but one in which we can also help by bringing in the technology we have developed for similar plays in the USA such as the Marcellus and Haynesville shales.
What new technologies can CGGVeritas bring to Mexico? Are there plans to promote your newest technology, BroadSeis?
BroadSeis offers a step-change in the way we acquire and process seismic data offshore and it delivers superior seismic imaging in terms of resolution. This new solution was introduced last year worldwide, and is a tool that can benefit both exploration and production engineers through better characterization of their prospects and reservoirs. Our ships currently operating for Pemex need very little adjustment to operate BroadSeis; as a matter of fact, Pemex technicians are currently evaluating it with the possibility to apply it to several projects. I think that Pemex has managed to make sure we have the best technology operating in Mexico. A very good example is what I mentioned at the beginning of this interview. WAZ technology, which, as I said, CCGVeritas introduced in the GOM about five years ago, has been used in several parts of the world and Pemex has been quick at using it extensively. We hope they will find value in our unique broadband solution BroadSeis in the near future.
What targets were you given for 2011 and what is your perspective for 2012?
The objectives we set ourselves at the beginning of the year for 2011 have been met, mostly due to the high level of activity we have had with Pemex. Next year we anticipate a good level of activity, but lower than in 2011 due to the completion of the WAZ program.There are also some new prospects for development: as you know, Pemex has been successful at licensing three blocks to develop mature fields in the Tabasco state. The plan, as we understand it, is to continue to license some additional blocks, mostly in the northern region. This gives us the opportunity to offer high-quality services to new operators who will need to use high-end technology to develop these mature fields. We have a long-term presence in the country; high-end technology, a good reputation and a long-standing relationship with Pemex. We therefore believe that we can offer significant value to these new operators.
When we interviewed your colleagues Mr Postal in Brazil or Mr Tong in Malaysia they highlighted how CGGVeritas has been building strong relations with the NOCs Petronas and Petrobas, and understanding what their requirements are. In Mexico there is a belief that doing business with Pemex can be rather complicated and the know-who is much more important than the know-how. How have you managed to build a good relation with Pemex and what would be your advice to someone sent to the country?
Our success in the country is definitely based on the long-term good relationships we have built with Pemex technicians and managers, but it is mostly due to the fact that we deliver consistently high-quality technology and services. This is probably the most important point that I can highlight regarding our success.
You have been in Mexico for 10 years. What would you say has been the most satisfactory about working in this part of the world?
Professionally, it has been a great time to get involved in the growth of CGGVeritas in Mexico and to share the excitement of bringing new technologies to our customers. I have a geophysics background, so for me it has been rewarding to see the acceptance of our technology by our customers and exciting to contribute with my colleagues to the success of our company in Mexico.
Has it been difficult for you to move from being a technician to a managerial role?
That´s life! I did really enjoy working with technology during my first years in Mexico in different positions for the Processing & Imaging Product line. In fact, in my current job as Geomarket Director I still have to keep up to date on the new technologies that the Company is introducing to the market so that I can tell our clients all about them and identify new business opportunities.
What is your final message to our readers?
The general outlook for the oil and gas industry in Mexico is very favorable in the long term. We have already mentioned that the easy oil time is over and Mexico is no exception. There are plenty of challenges, particularly deep offshore and in the shale oil basins but also to extract the most out of existing mature fields. We believe CGGVeritas in Mexico offers a wide range of capabilities with a very high technology content and has an experienced team of experts and technicians that deliver high-quality services, firstly to Pemex, who is our main client and the main operator in Mexico, but also ultimately to the new operators that will sign performance contracts with Pemex in the next few years. CGGVeritas has invested significantly in the country. We have a long-term strategy to stay and continue to grow in Mexico, not only in the sectors where we have been working so far (exploration), but also by extending our services to better optimize the development of oil and gas fields. We have been here for a long time and are committed to building on our success for many years into the future.
| Company: | CGG VERITAS |
| Country: | Mexico |