Rose completes optimisation of seismic shoot parameters at Paradox Basin

Natural resources business Rose Petroleum announced on Thursday that it had completed the optimisation of the 3D seismic shoot parameters on its oil and gas exploration acreage in the Paradox Basin, Utah.

The AIM-traded firm said surveying contractors had been engaged for the initial work programme on the 3D seismic survey and were expected to commence work “within days”.

As it announced on 22 August, the company had assembled a “highly experienced” technical and operational team with specific Paradox Basin experience to assist in the completion of the seismic survey.

The company said it had been working on - and now completed - the optimisation for a state of the art 3D seismic shoot.

“The shoot has now been focused on an area of 40 square miles within the 61 square miles permitted area but retained the same coverage over the Rose acreage, cutting out extended areas of the shoot which were not covering Rose's acreage,” the board said in its statement.

“It has been designed with high fold - greater than 35 fold with offsets up to 10,000-feet - wide azimuth design which the directors believe are better parameters than previous surveys in the area.”

Rose said the data would be suitable for azimuthal velocity and amplitude versus offset analyses for fracture characterisation, which - along with correlation to structural features - should allow the company to predict areas of open natural fractures.

It had been designed to tie in the State 16-42 and the Federal 28-11 wells.

“I am delighted with the progress we have made on the optimisation of the designs and the potential savings created by the improvements,” said CEO Matthew Idiens.

“Reducing the shoot area to 40 square miles whilst retaining the same coverage of our acreage has enabled a significant reduction in costs without affecting the quality of the data.”

Idiens confirmed surveying work was expected to commence “within days”, which would keep Rose on track for completion of the shoot by year end.

“We look forward to keeping the market updated in respect of both the progress on the ground and in respect of our future funding options, which are still progressing and we are confident of a positive outcome, hence the commencement of the surveying work.”