Petroleum Geo-Services ASA (PGS) has entered into a data sharing agreement with the South African Marine Research and Exploration Forum (SAMREF) for use of surplus data to improve understanding of the oceans.
Data recordings like temperatures and salinity through the water column, currents and weather observations are collected as a part of the PGS seismic acquisition process in order to improve seismic imaging. This activity has created an extensive MultiClient data library with corresponding surplus data. In late March 2017 PGS announced its intention to open the Company's surplus database for research on the ocean. The database dates back to 1991.
"We have just signed an agreement with the Institute of Marine Research in Norway and I am pleased to announce that we now have an agreement with another institution, the South African Marine Research and Exploration Forum", says Jon Erik Reinhardsen, President & CEO of PGS. "We will contribute where we can to increase our collective understanding and knowledge of the oceanic environment and we are hopeful that more institutions will respond to our invitation to access our surplus database for research purposes."
The South African Marine Research and Exploration Forum (SAMREF) is enthusiastic about the agreement:
"By leveraging the data collected by commercial ocean-going industries it becomes less costly to collect information on the marine environment for research purposes. This is an idea that is gaining more traction with various marine stakeholders globally and will hopefully lead to research of benefit to both academia and industry. We are excited for this partnership with PGS to help gain further information on South Africa's marine environment", says Nicole du Plessis, SAMREF Project Coordinator.
Source: PGS