Norway-focused North Energy announced Wednesday that it is teaming up with technology firm Rex Oil & Gas to use Rex's 'Virtual Drilling' exploration system for identifying and locating oil prospects.

 

Virtual Drilling – which has not been used on the Norwegian continental shelf (NCS) before –exploits the way different fluids resonate in different frequencies in seismic data. This allows it to distinguish between water-bearing structures and oil. North said it has conducted a number of blind tests with it on historical wells over the past 12 months, which yielded very good results.

 

North Energy Chief Executive Erik Karlstrøm commented in a company statement:

 

"The technology does not replace any of the tools we are using today, but helps to develop more oil prospects with current exploration tools.

 

"We will then make use of resonance technology as a final filter, then select the most promising prospects out of a wider range than today. This process will require more geologists and geophysicists as well as more seismic. A search for a partner in seismic is therefore a natural step further in this process."

 

Rex Energy is an independent energy company engaged in the acquisition, production, exploration and development of oil, natural gas and natural gas liquids.

 

North Energy ASA is an oil company with licenses on the NCS and its head office at Alta in Norway's northernmost Finnmark county.