could cooper be our partner?, page-29

RS,

I note that the COE drilling program as outlined in their ASX release would appear to follow the completion of the Audax well which makes a lot of sense as both parties require a semi-submersible rig.

A farminee would be unlikely to emerge until the "3D seismic data utilising Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) leading edge proprietary Geostreamer Technology in the Kerkouane permit offshore Tunisia" is available. This is the first time the Geostreamer technology has been used in Tunisia.

PGS state:

The GeoStreamer will change the game in our industry, says Jon Erik Reinhardsen, president and CEO of PGS. In the future all towed seismic acquisition will use dual sensors. Oil is getting harder to find. For our clients it means more and better information from the reservoir.

The Geostreamer technology is not dependent on calm weather and the timing of results is predictable. I suspect that the first seismic results would be in the Sambuca area to enable timely assessment by potential farminees prior to drilling.

I post the following extract from RIGZONE for the interest of readers who have not followed the development of offshore seismic technology:


"This is GeoStreamer

The GeoStreamer contains two sets of sensors -- in addition to conventional hydrophones, it also contains velocity sensors. By combining the two sensors, the sea surface reflection can be removed, thus allowing the streamers to be towed at any depth without compromising the low or the high frequencies in the reflected signals.

The GeoStreamers are towed significantly deeper than conventional streamers, yielding data with higher quality and less noise, as the effects of the sea surface waves become negligible. The deeper towing also means that the weather window can be extended.

Furthermore, since the sea-surface reflection is removed, the broader bandwidth yields data with much higher resolution, and the ability to see considerably deeper than normal."

Roughly one in five drilled oil & gas wells are successful; this new technology should help improve this statistic.