NORSK HYDRO METHOD SPEEDS ARCTIC SEISMIC

Norway's Norsk Hydro AS has successfully tested a technique to speed seismic surveys over snow and ice. Tests were conducted in the Soviet Union on the system, known as a snow streamer. The system closely resembles streamer systems used offshore. But instead of being towed behind a seismic vessel, the snow streamer is towed over ice by a specially equipped snow vehicle. The unit stops, fires a charge, and records data before moving on to the next point.

May 6, 1991

2 min read

Norway's Norsk Hydro AS has successfully tested a technique to speed seismic surveys over snow and ice.

Tests were conducted in the Soviet Union on the system, known as a snow streamer.

The system closely resembles streamer systems used offshore. But instead of being towed behind a seismic vessel, the snow streamer is towed over ice by a specially equipped snow vehicle.

The unit stops, fires a charge, and records data before moving on to the next point.

The snow streamer, acquiring data every 25 m, can conduct about 2.5-3 km/hr of seismic survey, compared with 3-4 km/day using the traditional system of drilling boreholes through the ice for explosive charges.

Apart from speed, Norsk Hydro says, the snow streamer has the advantage of leaving the environment untouched. Permafrost is not disturbed by drilling, and the system leaves no evidence that a survey unit has passed through.

Norsk Hydro and the Norwegian seismic company GECO AS conducted the latest test of the system in the Surgut arch area of western Siberia.

Norsk Hydro said Tyumen-geologia, part of the Ministry of Geology, appeared to be pleased with results.

Norsk Hydro also reports interest in the concept from operators in Alaska and northern Canada.

The Norwegians and Soviets are starting to put together a deal to use the snow streamer for more extensive data acquisition in the Surgut arch region next winter. The deal is to be part of a potential agreement between Norsk Hydro and Tyumen-geologia to explore for oil and gas in a 20,000 sq km area of Surgut arch.

Norsk Hydro developed the snow streamer for 1986-87 work in Svalbard, where seismic acquisition is difficult. More recently, it was used extensively on a Norsk Hydro claim in the southern part of Spitzbergen, where the company is drilling the 1 Reindalspasset wildcat.

Norsk Hydro, in partnership with Petro-Arctic, a Swedish group; and Sture Norsk, which has extensive coal mining and trading interests in Svalbard; is drilling near target depth on the 7,800 ft wildcat.

After developing and running confirmation tests of the snow streamer, Norsk Hydro brought in GECO to operate the system. Negotiations are under way to license it to GECO.