Equipment/Software/Literature

Aug. 17, 2009

New user adds trading, risk management system

Symphony ETRM, an integrated liquid hydrocarbons trading and risk management system, has added Sinclair Oil Corp., Salt Lake City, Utah, as one of its most recent users.

Symphony's straight-through-processing functionality helps improve work flow within an organization, enabling traders and risk managers to make better-informed decisions faster, says the developer of the system. The software pinpoints the value of a position in real time, tracks the total risk position under any given set of transaction variables, and manages all paper and physical transactions in one system while eliminating data entry duplication.

Source: Amphora Inc., 2500 CityWest Blvd., Suite 750, Houston, TX 77042.

Underwater receiver helps detect hydrocarbons

This new ocean-bottom electromagnetic (EM) receiver is designed to detect underwater oil and gas deposits with improved operational efficiency, safety, and more comprehensive data quality.

The QMax EM3 receiver is 1 m tall and 1 m wide and measures all six components of the EM tensor. Each unit weighs about 150 kg in air (without an anchor), and power consumption is about 1 w. The sensors, capable of 30-day deployments, may be used at depths as great as 4,000 m. Long electric-field arms are not required for industry standard signal-to-noise performance, but arms can be added for enhanced sensitivity.

The compact unit receives increased safety, reliability, and operational efficiencies in a new commercial-grade turnkey form designed for maximum deployment and recovery speed, minimal redundancy and redeployments, and more dense array surveys with larger numbers of instrument deployments than is now possible, the company says. The firm says its system achieves data quality with a combination of sensitivity, vertical axis data acquisition for electric and magnetic fields, and survey sampling enabled through denser surveys and fewer missed data points-redrops.

The system features:

  • Electrodes that are permanently connected to and stored within the instrument and are not affected by sunlight or water chemistry (fresh, brackish, or salt water), yet are up to10 times smaller than other electrodes, the firm points out.
  • Electrodes that do not need to be stored in water and have no assembly required, thus eliminating deckside assembly processes and associated potential failure points.
  • Receiver size that makes units more hydrodynamic, shortening the drop time and leading to more accurate placement.

Source: Quasar Geophysical Technology Div., Quasar Federal Systems Inc., 5754 Pacific Center Blvd., Suite 203, San Diego, CA 92121.

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