Norwegian survey company Electromagnetic Geoservices (EMGS) has increased its investment in Sonardyne International’s Ranger 2 Gyro-iUSBL technology that can detect the presence of hydrocarbons in deepwater. 

Said to be the second system owned by EMGS, the new Ranger 2 Gyro-iUSBL is equipped with acoustic positioning and inertial navigation technologies. 

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The system will be installed in one of the EMGS’s towed electromagnetic sources, which operate in water depths as great as 4,000m along with electromagnetic receivers to identify hydrocarbon presence through more than 3km of rock. 

Sonardyne Exploration sales manager Trevor Barnes said: "We delivered the first Ranger 2 Gyro-iUSBL system to EMGS in 2013, and at the time it was one of the most technically complex, but highly successful system integrations we had ever undertaken. 

"Over the last four years, it has been proven to meet all of EMGS’s requirements and we’re delighted with their decision today to invest in a second system."

EMGS focuses on controlled-source electromagnetic surveying (CSEM) method, which involves towing a long horizontal dipole antenna behind a towfish that moves between 30m and 50m above seafloor and transmits a specific pre-defined EM waveform.

"The method involves towing a long horizontal dipole antenna behind a towfish that moves between 30m and 50m above seafloor and transmits a specific pre-defined EM waveform."

EM receivers deployed on the seabed will be able to measure any energy that has been reflected by fluids used to produce reservoir maps for hydrocarbon exploration.

The success of CSEM depends on the accurate subsea positioning of the source towfish, antenna and each seafloor receiver. It allows accurate mapping of reservoir wells enabling the operator to reduce the risk of drilling dry wells.

Sonardyne’s Inverted Ultra-Short BaseLine (iUSBL) positioning technique uses an acoustic transceiver called Gyro-iUSBL fitted on the towed source to fulfil these operational requirements.

Gyro-iUSBL is equipped with Sonardyne’s sixth-generation HPT acoustic transceiver technology with SPRINT, a subsea inertial navigation sensor that can improve positioning precision over USBL by six times.

Image: EMGS purchases second Ranger 2 Gyro-iUSBL system from Sonardyne. Photo: courtesy of Sonardyne.