GGS has chartered seismic vessel "Mezen" from Russian company LARGE

Global Geo Services (GGS) has been awarded a seismic contract offshore Sri Lanka, estimated at $3.75 million.
GGS has chartered seismic vessel Mezen from Russian seismic company LARGE to collect up to 8000km of seismic data in order to delineate the extent of the Sri Lankan continental shelf. Conducted under the UN programme for defining continental margins, the survey is in support of the nation's claim to its offshore areas.
COLOMBO'S Admiralty Court has arrested the research vessel Mezen, on board which three Russian seafarers were found dead at the 30 Jan., 2006.
The vessel has been held back in Colombo port for investigation and she was arrested due to order by other company owning seismic equipment onboard the vessel.
The detention came after a $2.1M compensation claim by Norwegian Scan Geophysical AS.
The company is claiming that equipment it has on board the Mezen has been rendered unusable, court officials said. No further details were available and the claim is not known to be related to the mysterious deaths of the Russians. The cause of their death has still not been officially made public, although methanolpoisoning is said to be suspected. A report by the government analyst is expected on 1 April 2006.
The ship's captain told an inquiry that before they were discovered dead, the MO, bosun and mechanic had consumed some spirits and complained of dizzinessand pain.
The vessel arrest has delayed the start of surveys in the southern Bay of Bengal. The data is required by the island to supports claims to an extended continentalshelf margin under Unclos.
Sri Lanka is looking to produce oil within three years from potentially very large deposits of oil detected off the coasts of Hambantota, on the southeast of the island, and Puttalam, offshore the west central coast, about 70 miles off Colombo, in the Mannar Basin, situated between India and Sri Lanka and just south of the Cauvery Basin.

Scan Geophysical AS is offshore contractor involved in 2D and 3D streamer and shallow water seismic data acquisition and processing.
SCAN Geophysical AS was established in March 2002 as a Norwegian seismic data acquisition company specialized in both marine streamer seismic and ocean bottom cable seismic. The company is currently operating one 2D and one 3D streamer vessel, as well as ocean bottom stations for 4C ocean bottom seismic. More than 100 persons are presently working on SCAN’s vessels, and the administration is located in Oslo.
In addition to its two current vessels Geosearcher and Scan Resolution, SCAN Geophysical AS will launch several new 3D vessels in 2007.

Global Geo Services ASA is Norwegian non-exclusive survey specialist company - a key provider of Multi Client seismic data to the oil industry.
GGS was formed in March 1999 by the NOREX group in order to operate the Persian Carpet-2000 multi-client seismic survey in the Iranian part of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea. The PC-2000 survey is the largest ever 2D seismic survey of its kind in the world. The company has now almost completed the Persian Carpet 2000, which covers the entire Iranian part of the Persian Gulf and Oman Sea a 100,000 km with a 2x2 km and 2x4/4x8 km seismic grid respectively.
GGS has undertaken contract 3D work covering key fields offshore Iran as well as contract 2D projects offshore some Arabian states in the region.
In January 2006 the company was awarded a major NOK 25 million seismic contract offshore Sri Lanka after a competitive tender process. The project is financed by the Sri Lankan government with assistance from NORAD and a mixed credit facility from GIEK, and is said to be of strategic importance to Sri Lanka in providing the key documentation for the country`s claims to the extent of its continental margin.
GGS has also announced that Phase 1 (10,000 km) of its "Big Wave" multi-client survey, offshore West Florida, is going to be directly followed by the collection of Phase 2 (7500 km) as a result of growing interest in seismic data all along the Florida Escarpment, an area which may be opened in the near future. The company says the data show numerous textbook examples of very large petroleum traps, confirming possible existence of the large oil and gas reserve estimates previously made by the US Department of Interior’s Minerals Management Service (MMS) for the area.
The recent purchase of UK company Spectrum Information and Technology has significantly increased the profile of GGS. Spectrum has been a small but established UK-based geophysical company for 20 years with a core activity covering seismic data processing, preparation of data packages for licensing rounds through scanning and reprocessing of vintage seismic data as well as having a substantial seismic multi-client business. Spectrum’s data library is of similar magnitude to that of GGS measured in terms of line kilometres consisting of 143,000 2D line km and 700 3D km2. In addition, Spectrum has syndicated interests in 540,000 2D line km. Its data library includes data from the Eastern Mediterranean, Brazil, the Falkland Islands, the Gulf of Mexico, Great Britain, Algeria, Angola, Nigeria, and Pakistan.

Russian Company LARGE following restructuring of former LARGE UK in 2004 was established as independent company provides geophysical services to oil and gas industry both in Russia and internationally. The company is currently operating one 2D seismic vessel Mezen.

Murmanchanin RU