Global Oil Players Look to Liberia Again as NOCAL Reprocesses Seismic Data

Liberia aims to build on new industry interest in its promising offshore waters by signing a deal with longstanding partner TGS to reprocess a significant amount of multi-client 2D and 3D seismic data.

Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras along with Chinese state-owned oil firm CNOOC and leading Asian players Sinopec Corp and Chevron have expressed interest in the Liberian basin and are keen on obtaining the the new look data, according to industrial insiders. Liberia oil officials were recently in London and had talks with some of these global oil majors.

TGS is now partnering with the National Oil Company of Liberia (NOCAL) to undertake significant additional multi-client seismic data reprocessing offshore Liberia.

This initiative will rejuvenate the remaining 2D and 3D data in Liberia’s prospective Liberia and Harper Basins. The project will integrate existing legacy datasets to create a unified velocity model in depth, utilising cutting-edge imaging algorithms to produce the final migrated seismic data.

This enhanced data will be crucial for prospectively studies in Liberia’s offshore waters. The reprocessed products will benefit exploration through a consistent, continuous data set of several vintages by providing continuous seismic attributes of higher confidence at target levels across the entire margin.

David Hajovsky, Executive Vice President of Global Multi-client at TGS, stated: “At TGS, we are proud of our longstanding and successful partnership with Liberia, which we believe presents considerable offshore hydrocarbon opportunities.

This high-quality 2D seismic data will be essential in promoting future licensing rounds offshore Liberia under a direct negotiation approach.

It also allows E&P companies to further evaluate exploration opportunities in an under-explored but proven petroleum system adjacent to prolific hydrocarbon provinces.”

TGS recently completed the first phase of reprocessing approximately 12 097 km of 2D legacy seismic data offshore Liberia, significantly enhancing subsurface clarity. This data is now available for industry licensing.

The second phase has commenced, aiming to reprocess an additional 12 675 line km over the Liberia and Harper Basins, bringing the total to over 24 700 km. Additionally, TGS plans to reprocess approximately 15 616 km2 of legacy 3D seismic data in the Liberia Basin.