Vialogy Plc (LON:VIY), the American software group whose technology is used to work out where to drill oil wells, has been hired by a second global energy company to carry out assessment project using its QuantumRD technology. In the latest deal, ViaLogy will work on large oilfields outside the US for the Fortune Global 500 company. In August, the company won a contract from an unnamed super-major for work on fields in the southern US. The company said today that it had since been approached by several US and non-US companies for de-risking both onshore and offshore prospects.

Under the performance assessments connected to the latest contract, ViaLogy will use its QuantumRD technology to delineate productive formations in a deepwater reservoir for a large offshore development prospect. De-risking such prospects usually relies on drilling multiple, costly test wells because of the inability of conventional 3D seismic analysis to image fluids. The offshore project requires that ViaLogy predict oil and/or gas bearing zones from 3D seismic data in a complex sandstone reservoir setting. Sandstone reservoirs are common across the globe and can be highly productive, depending upon the accuracy of mapping interlaced sediment within reservoir or basin-scale geometry to delineate source, seal and reservoir geologies. The value-add of QuantumRD is its ability to increase resolution of the seismic data to assess hydrocarbon presence and fluid saturation.

QuantumRD will also be used to determine the attributes of a major onshore formation for the client. The onshore application will use QuantumRD's ability to discover subtle channel sands in complex stratigraphies. ViaLogy intends to delineate and size production grade hydrocarbon-bearing depositions in an onshore reservoir that spans several hundred square miles.

These prospects have been previously analyzed by the some of the leading geophysical services providers. Both the client and the locations of the projects remain confidential.

ViaLogy’s chief executive, Robert W. Dean, said: “These technology assessment projects are a major step forward for us, providing the opportunity to work in very large fields, showing the technology's capability offshore, and demonstrating its enormous commercial potential. In both of these offshore and onshore prospects currently available conventional seismic analysis technologies have thus far been unsuccessful.”

ViaLogy has positioned QuantumRD to provide services on a global basis for a broad class of sandstone, carbonate and shale…

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