Six seismic vessels secured

The deal's value is estimated at NOK 1.8 billion.

Secured seismic capacity includes three petroleum geo-service (PGS) vessels - Ramform Challenger, Ramform Sovereign and Atlantic Explorer, as well as Fugro Geoteam's Geo Celtic, Wavefield Inseis's Geowave Commander and Western Geco's Geco Triton.

"The six vessels allow us to map large areas and the seismic data will give us a better foundation for finding drilling targets on the NCS," says Bjarte Ydstebø, vice president for drilling and well acquisitions in StatoilHydro.

Next year's StatoilHydro NCS seismic activity will cover some 6,000 square kilometres of 3-D and 2,500 square kilometres of 4-D surveys.