Advent moves fast in Karbi Anglong 3D survey
Seismic newcomer Advent Oilfield Services is confident it can beat Oil India's end-2018 deadline for completion of a 396-sq km 3D survey in the volatile Karbi Anglong district of Assam.
"Oil India wants work completed in 18 working months," managing director Anuj Singla tells us. "But I think we can do it in 12 months." By April 1, exactly 100 days after Advent began work, five 'shot-firers' (explosives experts who lower dynamite into holes before triggering the explosion) had completed 3710 of 19,800 planned 'shots', recording seismic across 74.3-sq km or 18% of the contract area.
"By June (this year) we'll have shot around 140-sq km," a source at Advent's base camp at Adarshgaon hamlet tells a visiting PETROWATCH correspondent. Located less than 2-km from Dhansiri village close to the Nagaland border, approach roads to Adarshgaon are occasionally unusable because of frequent downpours (often lasting 16 hours) that bring work to a halt.
Despite this enthusiastic Advent staff on the ground are determined not to disappoint Oil India which rewarded the company with its first 3D contract in July last year (2016) after the company bid a knock-out Rs93cr ($13.7m). Advent was quick to mobilise a 650-strong seismic crew in November (2016) to begin the contract that saw only two other bidders: Geotech of Russia and Indian contractor Asian Oilfield; others were too scared by tales of abduction and extortion.