MOSCOW DATA CENTER TO SUPPORT JOINT VENTURES
A seismic data processing center is scheduled to open in Moscow in March 1991.
Professional Geophysics Inc., Houston subsidiary of ICF Resources Inc., Fairfax Va., is setting up the Soviet capital's first such installation for western use.
The center is designed to serve western oil and gas companies participating in Soviet exploration joint ventures, said Tom Russell, PGI president.
Equipment for the center, which Russell termed the most sophisticated seismic processing system ever exported to the U.S.S.R., was shipped from Houston in December 1990. The hardware and software are mainly of U.S. manufacture.
The system is designed for production processing of hydrocarbon exploration data.
MDSeis, a joint venture between PGI Inc. and the Soviet Ministry of Oil & Gas Industry, will own and operate the center.
The center will be capable of supporting eight MDSeis geophysical crews operating in the U.S.S.R. and will also handle reprocessing of Soviet data.
PGI, the only western company exploring Soviet producing land regions, has six crews operating and is mobilizing two more.
Exporting such a system could not have happened as recently as a year ago, Russell said, but now both countries are encouraging such arrangements.
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