Yahoo Board Thread Continued....(BTJ)

Market Share

In our last thread (see here), you totalled 31 Bolt vessels and 28 non-Bolt vessels. These numbers did not include WesternGeco, PGS, and a number of other vessels with limited to no information readily available. I have concluded, with a high level of certainty, that all of WesternGeco’s vessels (I get 18 including Western Spirit) and half of PGS’ vessels use Bolt guns. I would also suggest that at least one of the two SeaBird vessels with no listed specifications use Bolt guns. Based on this information, I get 55 Bolt vessels (or 63% of total identified vessels) and 33 non-Bolt vessels. It is my opinion that the limited information above neither proves nor disproves Mr. Soto’s 75% claim. Personally, I tend to believe Mr. Soto.

Furthermore, I think it is important to note that Bolt guns are used on a number of deep crustal research vessels by virtue of Bolt’s large volume guns. The numbers above do not include this market.

Bolt’s High Capacity Experience

WesternGeco has seven high capacity vessels. All seven vessels use Bolt guns. CGV has four high capacity vessels that use Bolt guns. These four vessels came over from Veritas after the acquisition. While Veritas is now a part of CGV, the fact that both Veritas and WesternGeco chose Bolt for their high capacity vessels strongly suggests that Bolt is going to have future success winning contracts for high capacity vessels. To think that Bolt is not going to be competitive in this space, in my opinion, is just plain wrong.

Does High Capacity or Low Capacity Even Matter

Does it matter if a vessel is high capacity or low capacity when selecting an air gun? Short answer…no.

What makes a high capacity vessel a high capacity vessel? When I look at the specifications of high capacity vessels there seems to be little to no emphasis on the source system. Instead the focus is on the recording system, processing system and the vessel itself. The source system is simply not a major factor in what makes a high capacity vessel a high capacity vessel.

What makes Sercel’s G Gun especially well suited for high capacity vessels? Given that the source system is not a major factor in what makes a high capacity vessel a high capacity vessel, the answer is very little, if anything. Furthermore, when I look at Sercel’s Marine Source brochure, there are few, if any, references to features that are specifically designed for high capacity vessels versus low capacity vessels. If Sercel guns had a list of features specific to or especially well suited for high capacity vessels, I would think these features would be big selling points. Instead, the G Gun is described as being suitable for a range of uses from conventional to high resolution surveys. This seems to support the idea that the source system is not what makes a high capacity vessel a high capacity vessel.

(The S12 Watergun is described as being well suited for very high resolution surveys but I haven’t seen this gun on any of the vessels that I have looked at. I don’t even see them on CGV’s high resolution vessels.)

When it comes to selecting the the source system, whether it is for a high capacity vessel or a low capacity vessel, the decision making process and the requirements are mostly the same . So what are some of the factors in the decision making process for a customer selecting an air gun and an air gun manufacturer? For starters, I think it is important to note that the end result of something like a Bolt LL Gun and a Sercel G Gun is substantially the same. As such, the actual end result produced by the source system is not a major consideration in the selection process. Furthermore, it is important to note that air guns operate under harsh conditions on a day-to-day basis and each gun fires approximately 800,000 to 1,000,000 times per year while traversing a total of about 20,000 kms. Given the harsh operating conditions, the guns and peripherals will require repairs and replacement parts on a regular basis. With the above being said, a customer will consider the following factors when selecting a source system and manufacturer: the reliability of the air guns, peripherals and manufacturer; the technical capacity of the air guns (not specific to high capacity or low capacity vessels); the technical capacity and availability of customer support; the availability of spare parts; and cost (up-front and maintenance).

The New Gun

Despite CGV’s press release announcing its new G Gun II, Bolt’s APG Gun is arguably the only genuinely new air gun on the market. The APG gun has several characteristics that make a lot of economic sense in streamer applications. Furthermore, the APG gun can be arranged in a configuration that creates a spot light effect, in terms of acoustic pulses, that makes it especially well suited for Life of Field Seismic (LoFS) applications, often times referred to as 4D.

The link below discusses the Valhall LoFS survey and describes the APG gun as follows:

“During seismic acquisition, a new type of airgun is fired from a standby vessel - the annular port airgun. The new source design is an annulus containing the air chamber and shuttle valve. These surround a hollow passage through which air supply hoses and electrical control cables are routed. Increased acoustic output per unit volume of air is due to increased surface area of the toroidal-shaped bubble (rather than spherical). This design eliminates gun plates, air manifolds, exposed air hoses and electrical cable jumpers. It protects fittings and connectors from the air blast, and results in less drag due to smaller sub-array profiles. These are important considerations, since a field vessel will tow the source arrays, taking two to three weeks and some 50,000 firings to complete one survey - and surveys are to be repeated every three months.”

Valhall LoFS Survey

***WesternGeco***

It has been suggested that WesternGeco favorable impact on Bolt is diminishing. With WesternGeco’s recent acquisition of EasternEcho and organic growth initiatives, I don’t see WesternGeco’s impact diminishing.

Well, that is it for now.

Good luck,
Tuff