ARKeX, the provider of geophysical imaging services, has commenced a 6712 line km BlueQube Marine gravity gradiometry survey for a Svenska Petroleum Exploration led consortium, offshore Guinea Bissau.

The West African republic has seen increasing exploration activity over the past few years with several exploration wells having been drilled. Svenska holds licences in Block 2 which includes the Sinapa oil discovery, determined to have a P50 STOOIP of 240 million barrels and Blocks 4A and 5A.

The BlueQube Marine survey will aim to give Svenska a better understanding of the extent and shape of the salt in the vicinity of both the Sinapa discovery and other identified prospects.

"We are very pleased to have been awarded this project by Svenska", said Paul Versnel, ARKeX VP Eastern Hemisphere, "and this will be our third BlueQube Marine survey in West Africa. The application of gravity gradiometry is gaining increasing acceptance in these challenging areas by providing critical information on the morphology of salt and carbonates to improve seismic imaging".

Svenska have also commissioned and a 1600 sq km 3D seismic survey to be acquired by the PGS Ramform Challenger vessel. The BlueQube Marine survey and the 3D Seismic will be combined to constrain the extent of the salt and de-risk the positioning of future wells on prospects already identified within the blocks.

"Svenska are very excited to be carrying out these surveys. The extensive and detailed datasets resulting from each, looking at different aspects of the subsurface geology, are part of an extensive program of studies being undertaken by Svenska as the operator in order to define further drilling locations on these licences", said Svenska CEO Fredrik Ohrn.