Norwegian Marine Seismic Player Enters Offshore Wind Market

Norwegian company PGS, best known for its seismic survey services in the offshore oil and gas sector, said Wednesday it had scored its first offshore wind contract. 

The company said it had secured its first ultra-high resolution offshore wind farm site characterization project, marking its debut in "a strategically important new energy market."

"PGS New Energy offers solutions to the ongoing energy transition by building on the subsurface and operational expertise of PGS’ employees and using the company’s assets. PGS aims to develop New Energy into a  significant business unit, and during 2022 the company established a strong position in the carbon storage geoservices market. 

Now PGS is taking the next step and enters the offshore wind site characterization market by being awarded the company’s first seismic acquisition contract in this domain," PGS said.

While PGS did not say who the client was, it said that the survey would cover two European wind farm sites, both of which are in a development phase. 

• A Seismic Shift

PGS will mobilize a 3D vessel for the project in early April 2023 and expects to complete the acquisition towards the end of June.

The project will be acquired with the market-leading ultra-high-resolution  3D (UHR3D) P-Cable system. P-Cable provides significantly more detailed subsurface data for shallower targets compared to traditional seismic acquisition systems.

Berit Osnes, Executive Vice President New Energy in PGS said:"We are delighted with this contract award, which marks our entry into the offshore wind site characterization market. Our P-Cable system acquires ultra-high-resolution 3D shallow subsurface data significantly more efficiently than conventional solutions. 

"We believe our geophysical approach to understand the shallow subsurface layers has a proven market fit and is ready to be scaled to increase our market share in the offshore wind segment. Carbon storage and offshore wind farms are important components of the transition to a sustainable energy mix."