Our seismic survey supervision services are designed to make sure that the contractor is in compliance with the approved survey program, and to check the completeness and quality of subsequent seismic data processing and interpretation activities. Progress towards achieving the desired exploration outcomes is re-evaluated at each stage of the process.

The Geophysical Data Systems Ltd. staff is capable of supervising all types and stages of seismic surveys, including:

• Assessment of survey programs' ability to generate the required geological information and models
• Evaluation (audit) of survey party's readiness for field work
• Seismic survey monitoring
• Survey data quality control and acceptance
• Preparation of progress reports for the client
• Supervision of data processing and interpretation

Seismic crew supervision includes making sure that the contractor is in compliance with the 2D/3D survey program and specifications, as well as with the topographic survey specifications, seismic equipment specifications and HSE requirements throughout all stages of field operations.

This includes:

1. Assessment of survey programs' ability to generate the required geological information and models
2. Evaluation (audit) of party's readiness for field work
   • Compliance of party's equipment with contract requirements
   • Availability of geophysical equipment, lodging, services, transportation and communication facilities
   • Adequate staffing (professional and labor), completion of annual staff training, medical evaluation, and HSE briefing
   • Availability of PPE and safety equipment for vehicles, work and rest areas
3. Ongoing seismic survey monitoring
   • Test survey monitoring and selection of data acquisition parameters
   • Compliance with field work program specifications
   • Seismic source operation inspection, testing and monitoring (including vibrators)
   • Topographic survey monitoring
   • EHSE monitoring
   • Survey data quality control
   • Daily, weekly and monthly progress reports

All monitoring is performed by experienced GDS staff (geophysicists, surveyors, electronic engineers, and HSE professionals) that have at least 5 years of experience with comparable projects in a variety of environments. All staff has the required Russian supervisor's certification and the necessary monitoring equipment. All supervisors have laptop computers, satellite phones, digital cameras and specialized instrumentation, such as:

— GPS: Topcon 1000, TRIMBLE 5700 — for topographic survey monitoring and verification;

— PELTON's Notebook VCA — for vibrator operation analysis;

— software tools for planning and monitoring surveys, including detours and line deviations.

To perform seismic data quality control, GDS has developed the SeisWin software suite that supports fast quantitative QC of 2D and 3D field data and enables us to deliver maps to the client within 1 to 3 hours of data acquisition.

Additionally, the SeisWin suite supports fast 2D and 3D data processing to refine the assessment of seismic data quality.

Field data quality control is based on reviews of raw datasets, analysis of quality attribute (SNR, bandwidth, mean frequency, fold, etc.) and evaluation of pre-processing results (preliminary stacking).

GDS has provided field monitoring services throughout Russia and CIS, including land surveys in the Western and Eastern Siberia, Timan-Pechora, the Volga-Ural region, Central Asia, and marine surveys in the Barents and Kara seas, and in the Sea of Okhotsk. We have been working in a variety of climate environments, from the Pamir mountains to the Arctic tundra, and in virtually all petroleum provinces of Russia. This gives GDS staff the unique opportunity to gain valuable hands-on experience, and accumulate and analyze large amounts of data to improve the quality of our services. 

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The core tasks of supervision during the processing and interpretation stages include in-house data processing QC, and in particular shallow interval data QC (when applicable).

The supervisor acts as an onsite client representative in strict compliance with the client's specifications.

The supervisor is in charge of monitoring compliance with processing and interpretation specifications applicable to seismic and logging data, as well as overall data quality.

Key supervisor's tasks:

• Support testing and selection of processing parameters.
• Approve the final workflow and processing parameters based on test results.
• Accept processing results or request re-processing/additional processing (statics/moveout correction, muting, F-K filtering, inverse filtering, velocity analysis, PSTM/PSDM, etc.).
• Monitor preliminary seismic and geologic interpretation, including reflector identification and correlation based on VSP, log data and wavefield modeling.
• Monitor integrated interpretation of seismic, logging and production data. This includes monitoring of time and structural imaging, identification and detailed delineation of faults, and the development of depositional and reservoir models.
• Review and approve contractor's processing and interpretation reports submitted to the client (including final reports).
• Prepare supervisor's reports related to seismic data processing and interpretation, and evaluate the results vs. the desired exploration outcomes.

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