Faster seismic decisions for African basins

Multinational

Percy Mellar, regional geoscience manager for Europe and Africa at DUG Technology in London, talks to The Energy Year about the appetite for imaging services in Africa’s mature and frontier basins, and how technology can improve development decisions.

DUG Technology is a developer of seismic processing and interpretation software and a provider of computing and big-data services.

• Data acquisition in Africa remains technically challenging and capital-intensive, especially in subsalt environments.
• Legacy seismic data is therefore becoming a strategic asset for operators as improved reprocessing technologies have become able to extract value from older datasets while lowering data acquisition costs and shortening decision timelines.
• Full-wavefield imaging, high-performance computing and AI-assisted interpretation are helping operators process data faster, improve subsurface understanding and support high-value investment decisions.

Which African basins are showing the strongest appetite for advanced seismic imaging?
Activity today is concentrated on the western side of the continent, with Namibia being particularly active. The country has become a huge draw, and companies such as Rhino Resources, TotalEnergies, Azule Energy and Galp are very interested in high-end imaging. After Namibia, the most demand for new seismic acquisitions and reprocessing comes from Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Nigeria and Ghana, with Morocco also becoming increasingly important. In reality, the list goes on as there are a lot of prospective basins to develop further.
At the same time, Africa holds tremendously valuable legacy data. There is a preference in the industry for the newest data, but there is enormous value in older datasets if they are revitalised properly – and that has been DUG’s speciality for many years.
Beyond the obvious cost advantages, legacy data has a lower environmental impact and leads to shorter development timelines, as it is immediately available to inform multi-million-dollar decisions. High-end reprocessing using the full wavefield can help validate or change interpretations and reduce uncertainty significantly for operators on a much shorter timeline.

What are the biggest imaging challenges that operators face in Africa today?
The range of challenges is wide. But subsalt imaging remains one of the most difficult to overcome. Subsalt environments are extremely difficult because you need optimal acquisition alongside the use of as much subsurface information as possible to obtain the best image. Those challenges are not going away any time soon.
One of the major ways DUG is addressing these challenges is through our elastic multi-parameter full waveform inversion. Traditionally, companies focused mainly on primary wavefield imaging and spent enormous amounts of time removing all other wavefields, treating them as noise – a process that could take up to 18 months.
Our approach is different because we use the full wavefield to derive elastic properties of the subsurface, improving the result while also massively reducing processing time. Time is money, and it is common for operators to come to seismic firms and say that they should have started processing 12 months earlier, but now they need a deliverable within six months. That is where reducing timelines becomes extremely valuable.

How does DUG seek to differentiate itself from other providers?
DUG is a relatively young company, founded in 2003. We had more of a start-up mentality in our early years, but we have evolved into a global listed company that competes at the highest level directly with the major contractors worldwide.
What differentiates us is that we have always focused on our key offerings: processing and imaging, interpretation software and high-performance computing. That clear identity and focus have allowed us to develop very high-end imaging technology, which we support with our proprietary HPC [high performance computing] infrastructure.
The HPC side is particularly important. Our systems are fully owned by us and use immersion cooling technology based on a dielectric fluid that massively reduces cooling requirements. The technology has reduced our cooling costs by around 51%, which is significant because we can pass the efficiencies on to our customers, and it also lowers our environmental impact. When running the highest-end compute algorithms within the industry, this makes a significant difference.
In Africa specifically, where many countries are still in the early stages of the transition towards greener industrial policies, technologies like ours are a strong fit. We can install them at our clients’ premises through our dedicated HPC division, allowing operators to create their own computing centres.

What trends are you seeing around AI in seismic processing in Africa?
AI is becoming a very powerful tool, especially on the interpretation side of the business. A few years ago, we started hearing discussions about AI replacing processing workflows completely, but at DUG, we see things differently. We currently use it as an additional tool, not a full replacement.
We have to be careful because the industry is making multi-million-dollar decisions based on datasets that themselves cost millions to acquire. AI absolutely has a role to play, but people also need to understand how to use it properly within the context of accurate geophysics.
Over the next five years, the role of AI will certainly continue to grow, and local capability development will continue to be extremely important for us. We work very closely with partners and governments across Africa to align with local legislation and local content requirements, and we have several agency agreements and joint ventures – with Petrovision in Nigeria and Striped Horse Resources in Angola, for example.
Training is now often embedded in contracts. In Tanzania, we include dedicated training packages that allow local personnel to travel to London for weeks of training, and our UK teams travel to the country to train employees of NOCs, governments and independents, as required.

What should investors and operators watch most closely in African exploration over the next five years?
The biggest factor will be consistency. Africa has enormous geological potential across many different basins, but investors need stable fiscal rules and predictable legislation. If countries can create predictable working environments, Africa could secure the lion’s share of future investment. Stability is a big reason why the Middle East became an investment hub.
We are carefully evaluating locations to establish a larger physical presence in Africa over the next five years. Nigeria, Angola and Namibia are all under consideration. The key question will be finding the best alignment with local governments and local companies as the market continues to evolve.

Read our latest insights on:

• Angola
• Equatorial Guinea
• Ghana
• Multinational
• Namibia
• Nigeria
• Tanzania