|
PETROLEUM DIRECTORY: Alaska’s new geology and geophysics business moves ahead Natchiq Technical Services is adding expertise ranging from borehole image interpretation to seismic data evaluation to its business Alan Bailey PNA Contributing Writer
Natchiq Technical Services is complementing its existing engineering consultancy and management business with a wide range of geology and geophysics services. The company is part of Natchiq Inc., a subsidiary of Arctic Slope Regional Corp.
Doug Waters, manager, geology and geophysics, for Natchiq Technical Services, is spearheading this new initiative.
Waters told PNA that Natchiq Technical Services wants to augment its existing services for the oil industry in Alaska and elsewhere. The new services will dovetail into the company’s existing business.
“We wanted to complete the picture, starting off with stimulation and completion, testing, drilling and now.... also to include the geology and geophysics side for evaluations,” Waters said. The new geology and geophysics section of the company started up in June of this year.
Specialized expertise Natchiq Technical Services offers the kind of specialized expertise that is critical to any exploration or development project, but which may not be available within a customer’s own workforce. The company can either supplement a customer’s own staff or provide a complete, integrated team to carry out a project.
Waters is a geologist with a strong background in evaluating borehole imaging logs, for both wireline and logging-while-drilling services.
“The dipmeter and image interpretation provides an enormous amount of information to the geoscientist and petroleum engineer,” Waters said. “This information would measure the reservoir quality of the rocks, including texture, lithology, current flow and borehole stability. You’d know what type of depositional feature you are penetrating — not only could you tell that you are in a submarine fan, but even the particular flow regime of that deposit channel, levee or lobe.” An expert can also use the logs to work out where a well bore is located on a geological structure such as a fold, fault or unconformity.
Petrophysics provides another example of the kind of specialized expertise that Natchiq Technical Services now offers.
“With regard to the petrophysical side of things, we will provide an interpretation of some of the other specialty logging measurements like nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), where you get pore size distribution, permeability and free and bound fluid volumes,” Waters said. “We’ll produce a composite evaluation plot, utilizing the log suite that an oil company may give us.”
The new services The company’s new range of services will include most aspects of geology, petrophysics and geophysics, as well as related data services.
On the geological side of the business, the company is offering a suite of services, including borehole image interpretation, field studies, well site operations, core descriptions, business risk assessment and economic analysis.
Petrophysical services will include production log interpretation, elemental analysis, borehole corrections and permeability analysis, as well as the analysis of fluid invasions.
Geophysics services encompass pre-drilling seismic interpretation and the post-well evaluation of seismic data. Natchiq Technical Services also expects to help its clients with seismic acquisition.
Data services potentially include well log editing, digitizing, data collection and data archiving.
“We’re going to be offering all the nuances that go along with data services the editing, the media,” Waters said.
Natchiq Technical Services will use a range of computer software to support its services and will tailor its software usage to meet its clients’ needs. However, the company plans to make particular use of the new generation of PC based geoscience software products.
Experienced staff Although the company’s geology and geophysics services have only just gotten under way, the Natchiq Technical Services staff possess a wealth of experience in the oil industry — the principal people in the company each have at least 20 years of experience. Waters himself started his career as an oil industry geologist in the early 1980s.
“I worked 10 years as an operator doing exploration here in Alaska and over five years with a service company in the same backyard — I’ve worked both Cook Inlet and north Alaska,” Waters said.
Waters is acquiring staff in response to the demands for services. The company has already hired a geophysicist, who is now doing specialized geophysical services for a major oil company in Alaska. That person is now a Natchiq Technical services staff member.
“As I’m getting the business in, I’m moving with what’s being called for,” Waters said.
Waters said that the company’s strategy is to build up a staff of in-house experts, rather than to hire people on a part time or temporary basis. Waters’ network of contacts in the oil industry is enabling him to contact the caliber of people that he is looking for.
“We’re looking for real specialized experts ... in highly skilled interpretation,” Waters said.
Establishing a cadre of in-house staff will underpin the company’s vision of integrating all of its services. We’re all in one building, Waters said. “Everyone works well together — that’s the key,” he said.
In addition, staff retention and continuity form critical components of the Natchiq Technical Services’ team approach. “We’re going to have staff that aren’t going to be flitting out of here,” Waters said.
Arctic Slope Regional Corp. Waters sees being part of the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. as a major benefit.
“The resources from this company are enormous,” he said.
Waters anticipates many opportunities for ASRC shareholders to work in the new business, especially on the data services side of the operations.
Waters also sees opportunities for shareholder education and training and is anxious to encourage shareholders to become involved in the businesses that the company operates. He hopes to arrange activities such as geological talks and field trips, as part of the company’s shareholder education initiatives.
Overall, Waters feels very optimistic about the future of Natchiq Technical Services’ new venture. With the company’s low overheads, he expects to be very competitive on pricing. And he’s finding demand from customers for specific expertise in the services that his company offers.
“There’s no replacement for having experience in the area, and that’s what we want to maintain here in Alaska,” Waters said.
| 