Grapevine

Annual Survey of Surveying and Mapping Services 2003

The surveying and mapping industry is composed primarily of two different activities, namely geophysical surveying, which provides services to the mineral, oil and gas industry, and land surveying. This industry generated $ 1.87 billion in operating revenues in 2003, up 1.8% over 2002.

Operating revenue from firms classified under geophysical surveying and mapping services dropped from $ 1.01 billion in 2002 to $ 977 million in 2003.

Alberta continues to lead all provinces in total surveying and mapping services, accounting for $ 1.2 billion or 63% of operating revenues earned in 2003 — unchanged from 2002.

Alberta-based firms accounted for 88% of all geophysical surveying services in Canada, demonstrating a direct link with the oil and gas industry, primarily based in Alberta. One must note that this includes not only work performed in Alberta proper, but also work conducted by Alberta-based companies in other provinces, offshore, and in other countries.

The industry’s before-tax operating profit margin was 8.7% in 2003, relatively unchanged from 8.5% in 2002.

The top 20 firms generated 37.9% of operating revenue, only marginally less than 2002, when they accounted for 38.5%. These firms also accounted for 29.5% of salaries and 38.9% of all operating expenses. Their share of operating profits decreased from 31.5% in 2002 to 27.2% in 2003.

For more information or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Michel Savard (613-951-3175; fax: 613-951-6696; michel.savard@statcan.ca), Service Industries Division.

Paradigm Increases the Capacity of its Seismic Data Processing Centers in CIS and Offers New Depth Imaging Services

Efficient new clusters double the centers’ computational capacity.

Moscow, 22 February 2005 – Paradigm™, the premier provider of advanced petroleum geoscience and engineering technologies to the oil and gas exploration and production industry, announces that it has upgraded its seismic data processing centers in the CIS with new, 90 processor computation clusters, based on the Intel Xeon™ processor with Intel EM64T, and a 32- CPU SGI Altix system based on Intel Itanium® 2 processors. This is the latest stage in the expansion of the computing capability of its CIS centers, which are the largest and most high-powered computing centers of their kind in the region.

The new system shortens the time to project completion, and enables pre-stack depth imaging using Paradigm’s advanced migration tools such as 3-D Wave Equation Common Shot Migration, Common Reflection Angle Migration (CRAM™) , and a Kirchhoff algorithm that supports anisotropy corrections. These software solutions, especially optimized for clusters, provide high-quality results and allow the creation of more precise environment models.

The Paradigm Seismic Data Processing and Interpretation Center in the CIS offers comprehensive geophysical services, including geological and geophysical data interpretation, reservoir studies and oil and gas field analysis, through Paradigm’s advanced Epos™ 3 integration framework-based solutions.

14th Annual Calgary Mining Forum: “Investing in the Future”

This forum is to be held on April 6-7, 2005 at the Calgary Ramada Hotel Downtown. The technical talks and trade show will highlight metallic mineral exploration activities and will provide an opportunity for mineral exploration companies and government agencies from western Canada to present their projects.

Short courses are “Investor Relations for the Small Resource Company” on April 5th and “Digital Data in Mineral Exploration-How to Make It Work For You” on April 8.

Confirmed presentations include the following:

• New developments in the Churchill Diamond Project, Nunavut – Pamela Strand, Shear Minerals Ltd.
• Sullivan Deeps Project, southeastern BC: Diamond drilling and geophysics – Scott E. Broughton, Stikine Gold Corporation
• The Copper Canyon Project: A Large Tonnage Resource in British Columbia – Tim Termuende, Eagle Plains Resources
• Overview of kimberlite eruptive sequences at Fort a la Corne, SK – S. Harvey, Saskatchewan Geological Survey
• Current perspectives on the mining market – Don Poirier, Mining Analyst, First Associates
• An overview of kimberlite- indicator mineral trends in Alberta – Roy Eccles, Michael Dufresne, and Jill Weiss

For registration please contact:

Henry Lyatsky, Conference Chairman at (403) 282-5873 or lyatskyh@telus.net.

Paul Hawkins, MEG President, (403) 242-7745 or phawkins@shaw.ca.

On the Move!

Data Trek Ltd. have moved to their new office! The new address is #202, 5011 11 Street SE, Calgary, Alberta, T2H 1M7. Feel free to contact Dave Gelinas and Andy Morris at (403) 255-5774.

Geo Search Data is pleased to let you know that as of March 14th, their new offices will be located at 200, 707 7th Avenue SW, Calgary, T2P 3H6. Their main phone numbers will remain the same: (403) 237- 0885 and fax (403) 265-8625.

Veritas DGC and Maersk Oil Announce Central North Sea Agreement

London, February 14, 2005 – Veritas DGC Inc. announced its Veritas Geophysical Limited subsidiary has successfully concluded an agreement with Maersk Oil (UK) Limited to evaluate UK Central North Sea Promote block 30/1d. The block was previously awarded to Veritas Geophysical as a Promote License in the UK 21st Offshore Round in 2003.

Under the terms of the transaction, Maersk Oil will farm-in to the block and drill a horizontal well to evaluate the Ockley structure, where gas and condensate were encountered in the Hod Formation of the Chalk during the drilling of the 30/1c-2A well in 1983 and the 30/2a-2 well in 1991.

Robert Hobbs, president of Veritas DGC Limited in London commented, “We are delighted to conclude an agreement with Maersk Oil, who are acknowledged experts in the evaluation and development of Chalk reservoirs. The combination of advanced seismic technology and reservoir expertise offers a real opportunity to test a new play concept in the UK North Sea, building on Maersk Oil’s extensive experience offshore Denmark.”

For more information concerning Veritas DGC Inc. and its affiliated companies, visit www.veritasdgc.com, or for Maersk Oil visit www.maerskoil.com. For further information concerning this release, please contact:

Richard Morgan at Veritas Geophysical +44 1293 443 000
Anders Würtzen at Maersk Oil +45 336 34 000

Lunchbox Geophysics

On Tuesday, April 5th, please join Emil Blias from Revolution Geoservices Inc for the Lunchbox Geophysics session titled: “Stacking Velocities in the presence of Shallow Anomalies”. This informal talk will be held from 12:00-12:45pm in the Aquitaine Tower +15 Auditorium at 540, 5th Avenue SW. There is no charge, and please bring your own lunch. To register, contact Larry at larrya@kelman.com or call him at (403) 294-5255 ext. 160. Don’t delay as this hot topic will be sure to fill fast!

“Unleash the Energy – Positioning Information and Technology” GeoAlberta 2005, is the fourth annual GeoAlberta conference and will be held in Calgary, Alberta at the Telus Convention Center May 9th to 11th, 2005.

Aimed towards new, current and future users of GIS, this conference offers the opportunity for professionals to tap into the power of location-based information by introducing new applications, the latest technologies and forward-thinking methodologies.

You can expect sessions such as ‘Developing Enterprise GIS Within An Oil and Gas Company’, ‘Cost Benefit Analysis of the Oil & Gas industry converting from NAD27 to NAD83’, ‘GIS Digitization and GPS Field Data Collection to Support HCA and Class Location Analysis for Gas Pipelines’ and ‘Interaction between Government and Canada’s Petroleum Industry regarding Spatial Datasets and Services’.

The 2005 Committee is dedicated to providing participants with a full day of practical workshops, two days of thought-provoking educational sessions, a vendor’s exhibition with 30 vendor booths, a map gallery and a not-to-miss vendor casino night.

The GeoAlberta Conference is hosted by: GeoEdmonton, GITA Alberta, URISAAlberta and the Alberta Geomatics Group. Visit the website (www.GeoAlberta.com) to register for your chance to unleash the energy from your endeavors.