Following a unanimous vote in the program committee for the NCS Exploration 2019 | Recent Advances in Exploration Technology conference, PGS was given the NCS Exploration Honorary Award 2019 for the development of GeoStreamer. The conference is organized by GeoPublishing and the Geological Society of Norway

The committee included senior representatives from Lundin, Equinor, Aker BP, CGG, TGS, Explonor, Petrolia NOCO, EMGS, GeoEight, and GeoPublishing. Together they recognized the seminal role of PGS GeoStreamer technology in launching the broadband revolution in 2007.

A Clearer Image

Twelve years after its launch, GeoStreamer continues to inspire and enable new advances in seismic imaging. As a brand, it defines and identifies PGS. Commercially, it has been key in building and differentiating our MultiClient data library.

"It is an honor for me to receive this Honorary Award by NCS Exploration on behalf of PGS," said Rune Olav Pedersen, CEO in PGS when he received the award.

"The GeoStreamer project started internally in PGS in 2001. In the beginning, this was more an 'idea' a few dedicated people in PGS' R&D department was pursuing than a real project. These individuals did believe that it should be possible to produce a streamer that included a geophone in addition to the hydrophone which was used in streamers at the time. Conventional wisdom, however, said this was not possible as the geophone would be too noisy to introduce any uplift in resolution," Pedersen explained.

He gave particular praise to two PGS employees. The late Svein Vaage, who was the main force behind the patent that solved the issue of the noisy low-frequency part of the geophone data by substituting it with hydrophone data, and Rune Tenghamn who pioneered the idea and drove the engineering of the streamer.

"GeoStreamer is still state-of-the-art now twelve years after its launch. PGS is developing the next generation of GeoStreamer acquisition equipment, which will lower the cost of production, strengthen the streamer, reduce the drag and introduce other operational benefits," Pedersen concluded.

The Jury's Reasoning

"GeoStreamer was launched by PGS in 2007 and was the first multisensor streamer available on the market."

"Until then, streamers had only measured the pressure wave field. GeoStreamer measured vertical particle motion in addition to the pressure. Particle motion measurements are easily contaminated by noise, and this was a big challenge that PGS had to overcome. However, the upside of using these measurements was considerable. Deghosting of seismic data could be improved, which again led to improved bandwidth and more flexibility in towing depth."  

"The flexibility in towing depth meant higher productivity in poor weather, and it was easier to tackle difficult situations with for example a thermocline in the upper water layer. The improved bandwidth was important for resolution and for seismic inversion techniques."

"The launch of GeoStreamer had a disruptive effect on the acquisition and processing market and triggered the "broadband revolution". To increase bandwidth from single sensor data, slanted streamer acquisition was introduced by several companies.  Also, a lot of effort was spent on improving methods for de-ghosting of single sensor data, and on improving the processing of low frequencies." 

"It took almost 5 years before the first commercial alternative to the GeoStreamer became available, and PGS is still the only company to have its entire fleet equipped with multisensor streamers." 

"In conclusion, the GeoStreamer was a disruptive and innovative technology that triggered many new developments and directions in the acquisition and processing market. PGS is, therefore, a worthy winner of the Honorary Award."