Under the contract, First Geo – part of Oslo-listed Akastor ASA – will provide full exploration teams and data hosting services for INPEX NORGE AS. First Geo’s geologists will be based at INPEX’s office in Oslo, Norway, and provide seismic interpretation services and support to INPEX’s in-house exploration team.
“Enhancing exploration activities in the Norwegian offshore area will contribute towards strengthening our growth strategy of continuous enhancement of E&P activities. Further, working with First Geo allows us to speed up our early phase establishment on the NCS, which makes this cooperation important to us,” says Hitoshi Okamura, general manager of INPEX NORGE AS. Over the past decade First Geo has developed its own data center for interpretation of seismic data, geology and reservoir modeling.
“Through providing specialist exploration teams as well as seismic interpretation tools and data storage and back-up solutions, we contribute towards keeping oil companies’ investments down. This is a business model that is particularly attractive for small and medium sized oil companies that do not wish to build too much overhead costs,” says VP Business Development in First Geo, Helge H. Nyrønning.
First Geo’s contract with INPEX runs until the end of 2015. Contract value is undisclosed.
INPEX CORPORATION is a worldwide oil and gas exploration and production company based in Tokyo,
Japan, with more than 70 active projects across 26 countries all over the world. In 2014, the Norwegian government pre-qualified INPEX as a license owner on the NCS.
First Geo is one of the largest sub-surface consultancy businesses in Norway. The company employs 85 people, including geologists, geophysicists and reservoir engineers. Its head office is located in Stavanger, Norway, with further Norwegian offices in Oslo and Bergen. The company also has an office in Perth,Western Australia.