Grapevine

Customized Training for LogM & Other GMA Software

GMA International Ltd. Has been providing geophysical software for 15 years. At present, LogM with GeoFeatures is our most popular product offering almost endless capabilities in well editing synthetic creation. cross-section generation and stratigraphic modelling. GMAplus 2D/3D, STRUCT, MWLA and AVO Synthetics have all been developed with the same objective of providing reliable tools to help the explorationist do the job of predicting the presence of economic deposits of oil and gas. Currently. GMA's training emphasizes the use of LogM but linkages between the LogM program and GMA's other software products will be demonstrated in the training sessions. Plans are underway to develop courses for all of GMA's products and these will be announced when ready.

GMA's training goal is to ensure that the user has a thorough knowledge of the background and the use of the software products so that the maximum advantage is obtained from these powerful tools.

Oil-Link Update: A Major Redesign on the Oil-Link - Again!

A major redesign of the Oil-Link site (http://www.oillink.com) has been completed to better serve visitors. The home Page now offers daily oil and gas news headlines, rig counts, a featured product column and five-day pricing information. A Thunderstone search engine has been installed that provides substantially improved performance. This is the same search technology behind sites such as Lycos, eBay, the Wall Street Journal and ZDNet. There is no way around it, traffic is booming! In the last three months, visits to Oil-Link have increased 250%. OilLink is currently on track to receive 100,000 visits in the month of December. This should represent about 40,000 distinct oil and gas professionals who will view close to 500,000 pages.

Ray A. Ballantyne Appointed to Vice President of Marketing, Technology, and Business Development for Baker Hughes Inc.

Recently, Ray A. Ballantyne has been appointed to the position of vice president of marketing, technology, and business development for Baker Hughes Incorporated (BHI-NYSE, rex. EBS). He will be based at the Baker Hughes headquarters in Houston. In his new position, Ballantyne will help define the corporate strategy for integrating technology, marketing, and technical software development. He will also playa key role in client account management and the development of technology resources and communication networks.

Veritas DGC Inc. Unveils New Visualization Center

Veritas DGC Inc. has unveiled its new Visualization Center, allowing teams of explorationists to view and interpret large volumes complex three-dimensional geophysical data used in oil and gas exploration. "The center provides the ability to display and manipulate massive amounts of 3D data covering large geographic regions, which gives a real advantage in establishing the 'big picture' in the reconnaissance stage of the exploration process," says Dale Bowering, Vice President of Business Development for Veritas Marine Surveys. "A lot of ground can be covered very quickly, producing results in a fraction off the time taken using conventional methods."

Powered by Silicon Graphics Onyx2 workstation for visual supercomputing, the center includes a main workroom theatre with an 18 by 7 foot rear projection viewing screen, as well as four private interpretation visualization workrooms, allowing multiple teams to work simultaneously. The center is ideal for fostering collaboration among multidisciplinary geoscience teams working on exploration and production problems.

"From data processing through reconnaissance to production, the ability to display and interpret huge volumes of data in a collaborative setting allow better decision making in a more timely manner," says Bowering. "That is the real value that Veritas is offering to its clients."

GeoData Products Division New North Sea Reports/Data Packages

Scott Pickford, the integrated geoscience consultancy, now part of the Core Laboratories Group, is pleased to announce the following new phases of the Company's non-proprietary studies.

Hydrocarbon Prospectivity of the Tertiary of the U.K. Central North Sea Study.

Funded by the Canadian explorer Bow Valley, this work was completed in advance of the 18th UX Offshore Licensing Round. The report is a synthesis of over 10 years of continual work across the area and integrates several thousand kilometres of seismic with over 400 wells. This study is now available to clients on a non-exclusive basis for ongoing regional Central North Sea work.

The Norwegian Facies KnowledgeBase (NFK) Project

Scott Pickford and the Oljedirektoratet (NPD) have signed an ongoing contractual commitment of 'released data cooperation' providing access to data for the NFK Project. This study is well advanced with NFK Phase 2, focusing on the North Viking Graben to More Basin area, scheduled for completion in November. The project manager John Hanson commented "The contract with NPD and the on-going relationship with a key client has secured our access to the fundamental data components we require to complete our work. It is particularly significant that we now have 10 clients to the project. This means that the exploration programmes for over half the oil companies in Norway are able to benefit from the enhanced geological information provided by the NFK." NFK Phase 1 and NFK Phase 1 Extension, covering the Norwegian CS up to 60 degrees were both completed last year.