Tenzor Geo to mitigate the uncertainty of looking for oil in the North Sea

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09 May 2018

This summer, a young Aberdeen company will develop and deploy its game-changing technology for precise location of hydrocarbon deposits in a bid to boost the economic recovery of the North Sea oil sector. Tenzor Geo is joining the inaugural cohort of the OGTC Tech X pioneers for a sixteen week intensive accelerator program beginning in June.  "We are very excited about the opportunities offered by the OGTC and look forward to earning the industry validation as soon as possible”, says Ivan Starostin, the company’s founder.

Tenzor Geo’s technology is already used in commercial projects onshore with an unprecedented prediction success rate of 87%.  The company aims to pilot its offshore integrated service with the North-East operators in 2018-2019.  

The company uses its unique software and passive micro-seismic data acquisition method to analyse low frequency signals constantly present in the geological environment. The most precise interpretation result, pinpointing the exact sweet spot for drilling,  is achieved in conjunction with an existing VSP and acoustic velocity logging model built on a wildcat or a production well data. The service comes at a fraction of the cost compared to the conventional seismic survey providers and is expected to bring the  average cost of an E&A campaign to a third of its current level by having to drill fewer wells. As such, the service can be vital in making small pools more economic to develop and giving mature fields a new lease of life.

Tenzor Geo’s highly sensitive Ocean Bottom Seismometers (OBS) used for offshore data acquisition can be installed in any formation to a depth of up to 6000m from a variety of easily adapted supply vessels. The method is economic and environmentally friendly as it requires no explosions, air guns, cables, ROVs or specialist survey vessels. The OBS are recoverable via an automatic re-surfacing system, which unfastens the ballast, leaving it on the seabed to eventually turn into a harmless substance. The OBS can be quickly re-attached to the new ballast and used again. The data is processed by a supercomputer and a report takes one month to be prepared after the data acquisition stage is complete.

As soon as the technology has been tested in the North Sea, Tenzor Geo will be rolling out its service to all licence holders in the UKCS and abroad.