MORE WESTERN TECHNOLOGY EYED FOR U.S.S.R.

Two new joint ventures expect to open offices in the U.S.S.R. to apply western seismic technology to Soviet oil and gas development.

Plans include:

Digitizing and upgrading existing Soviet seismic and well data for sale to western oil companies and Soviet oil associations.
Collecting new seismic data with equipment and techniques developed outside U.S.S.R.
Selling state of the art western geophysical technology to Soviet oil and gas organizations.
Training Soviet geoscientists to play key roles in bringing Soviet geophysical data in line with international standards.

A joint venture of Landmark Graphics Inc., Houston, and Jebco Seismic Ltd., London plans to open a service center in Moscow outfitted with the newest seismic equipment U.S. and European governments will allow it to export to the Soviet Union.

Plans call for using Landmark's computer aided exploration capabilities to digitize Soviet geophysical data available through Jebco. The goal is to make Soviet exploration data more useful to western companies and Soviet oil and gas organizations.

For the past 2 years, Jebco has been selling data packages to non-Soviet companies on behalf of the Soviet Ministry of Geology and the Russian Federation's State Geologic Committee. Landmark has exploration hardware in Moscow at the Ministry of Oil and Gas but not with the capabilities it hopes to offer at the Landmark-Jebco Moscow service center.

RUSSIAN FAR EAST

Meanwhile, Geoid--a joint venture of Fairfield Industries Inc., Houston, and Sakhalingeology, a regional, affiliate of the Soviet Ministry of Geology--received approval from the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation to begin offering integrated data packages, consulting geologists, and processing and acquisition services in the Russian Far East.

Geoid's general manager is Igor Bougai of Sakhalingeology. The U.S.S.R. Ministry of Geology and Russian Committee of Geology also have approved formation of the joint venture.

Sakhalingeology has about 100,000 line km of seismic data collected during the past 2 decades in an area east of a line stretching north from the Sino-Soviet border, east of Skovorodino, to the East Siberian Sea. Seismic data as far as 500 km inland, offshore data from shallow coastal waters, Sakhalin Island, and Kamchatka Peninsula are included.

Through Geoid, Fairfield will help Sakhalingeology present the data to western companies.

Geoid will reprocess small amounts of existing eastern Soviet data at Fairfield's Houston headquarters. Large requests for reprocessed data will be handled through an office in the city of Yuzhnosakhalinsk, on the southern end of Sakhalin Island.

Geoid will offer to shoot new seismic data using radio telemetric equipment and techniques developed by Fairfield, company President Richard C. Anderson said.

Once it begins to receive orders for fresh seismic data, Anderson said, Geoid will need about 6 months to move crews and equipment into the field.

MOSCOW SERVICE CENTER

Soviet geophysical data available through the Landmark-Jebco joint venture include:

About 200,000 line km of seismic data.
Logs from about 1,000 Soviet wells.
Ancillary maps, reports, and other information attendant to well data.

Regional and field data are available from basins in western Siberia, Timan-Pechora, Pre-Caspian, eastern Siberia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and the Barents Sea. Data from Laptev Sea and Bering Sea areas will be available soon, officials said.

The Landmark-Jebco joint venture said it will offer a full spectrum of advanced seismic services at the Moscow service center. It hopes to install optical scanners and high quality thermal, electrostatic, and pin plotters to convert Soviet analog seismic and well data and paper maps to standard, petroleum industry, digital formats.

Landmark-Jebco was unable to say how soon it will begin offering services in Moscow or which technology U.S. and European government officials will allow the joint venture to export to the U.S.S.R.

EXPORT LICENSES

Depending on specific items involved, Landmark-Jebco said, export licenses in the U.S. must be obtained from the Commerce, Defense, and/or Treasury departments. U.K. exports licenses also will be needed because some equipment will be reexported from the U.K. after being shipped initially from the U.S.

"We anticipate sourcing from other European countries, so in the long run we expect to be dealing with regulatory agencies of the entire European Economic Community," said Jebco Vice Pres. Grant Lichtman. "We will move as quickly as we can to move into Moscow whatever level of technology is initially exportable."

Jacek Gawron, Landmark director of international operations, said the joint venture expects a great deal of assistance from authorities in all countries involved because "the fate of the Soviet Union--in particular its oil and gas industry--affects the economic stability of the entire world."

Similarly, Gawron and Lichtman said they expect political unrest in the Soviet Union to be subjugated in favor of the greater good.

"While there have been perceptions of great economic risks and questions about taxation and authority, the largest, most active, foreign companies, if anything, are ramping up their efforts," Lichtman said. As more Soviet oil and gas deals with firm economic criteria are consummated, he said, other companies will use them as models and become more involved in the U.S.S.R.