Altira Leads MicroSeismic First Round Funding to Expand Passive Seismic.Energy Editors/Business Editors/High-Tech Writers HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 19, 2003 MicroSeismic Inc., a service company created to exploit the concept of passive seismic for both exploration and production of hydrocarbon resources, announced today that it has received its first round of funding. The round was led by Altira, an early stage venture capital firm that focuses on energy technology. According to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Peter Duncan Peter Duncan is the name of several people:
Passive seismic is 3-D imaging of the target geology and reservoir dynamics without the use of conventional surface sources such as dynamite dynamite, explosive made from nitroglycerin and an inert, porous filler such as wood pulp, sawdust, kieselguhr, or some other absorbent material. The proportions vary in different kinds of dynamite; often ammonium nitrate or sodium nitrate is added. , vibrators or airguns or downhole monitoring tools. Instead, naturally occurring micro-earthquakes or reservoir generated micro-seismic emissions are monitored using a sparse array In computer science, A sparse array is an array for which most of the elements have the same value (called the default value -- usually 0 or null). A naive implementation may allocate space for the entire array, but this is inefficient since there are only a few non-default of surface or seabed monitors to produce high resolution, 3-D data volumes. As Duncan explained, "Passive seismic is a technology that has been around for a number of years. It was largely ignored because of the ease of application and success of traditional seismic. Now, with growing environmental and urban development concerns, passive seismic is again getting attention. With the increases in computing power and monitor sensitivity, we can accurately measure the literally millions of seismic events that provide a remarkably rich and detailed picture of events in the target area." Duncan continued, "As an example, we are currently working on a project utilizing transmission tomography tomography Radiological technique for obtaining clear X-ray images of internal structures by focusing on a specific plane within the body to produce a cross-sectional image. to develop structural mapping in an area with urban build-up build·up also build-up n. 1. The act or process of amassing or increasing: a military buildup; a buildup of tension during the strike. 2. which is surrounded by several environmentally sensitive areas An Environmentally Sensitive Area (ESA) is a type of designation for an agricultural area which needs special protection because of its landscape, wildlife or historical value. . Traditional seismic is not commercially viable in these areas. However, our passive seismic technology can produce high resolution, 3-D structural imaging at a price far below conventional methods and with virtually no environmental footprint or impact. We are now looking at extending our capabilities to include offshore surveys as well." Dirk McDermott, managing partner of Altira, commented, "MicroSeismic has the technological capabilities to accelerate the use of passive seismic in the market. We believe that the environmental and reservoir monitoring applications for passive seismic have the potential to fuel dramatic growth for the company." There are two manifestations of passive seismic technology. In Passive Seismic Transmission Tomography (PSTT PSTT Placental site trophoblastic tumor PSTT Practical Software Testing Techniques PSTT Pulse Single Target Track ) the differing travel times observed at the surface for micro-earthquakes located below the target reservoir are used to estimate the velocity structure of the prospect or field. Both compressional and shear waves shear wave See secondary wave. are recorded for independent estimates of compressional and shear velocity (Vp and Vs). Since there are no sources, no lines to cut and a relatively small crew of three or four needed to execute the survey, costs can be reduced by 30-90% over conventional 3-D while achieving comparable results. As well, since there is virtually no environmental footprint, the method can be permitted in areas that are inaccessible to regular crews. The second implementation of passive seismic is Passive Seismic Emission Tomography (PSET PSET Practical Simplification of English Text PSET Preset ). A multi-element acoustic antenna is tuned to the reservoir to monitor the energy released by micro-seismic emissions. These acoustic signals, when mapped in 3-D, represent the location of stress changes in the reservoir created by local compaction, fault creep, injected fluid front movement and natural fracture network activity. These observations can provide a level of field-wide detail for many reservoir mechanisms and attributes that is not available from any other commercial technology. Charles Archambeau, MicroSeismic Inc.'s chief scientist, has developed the foundation technology over 40 years of theoretical and practical application. With a proprietary software toolkit for PSTT and PSET data processing data processing or information processing, operations (e.g., handling, merging, sorting, and computing) performed upon data in accordance with strictly defined procedures, such as recording and summarizing the financial transactions of a and analysis and an aggressive development plan for software and hardware innovations, the company is positioned to be a major player in this emerging market. About Altira Altira is a seed and early stage venture capital firm focused on energy technology. Based in Denver, Colorado, the firm is investing from its fourth fund. Altira looks for promising technology companies in the areas of oil and gas, energy information technology, electric power generation, transmission and distribution, and renewable energy Renewable energy utilizes natural resources such as sunlight, wind, tides and geothermal heat, which are naturally replenished. Renewable energy technologies range from solar power, wind power, and hydroelectricity to biomass and biofuels for transportation. . The firm targets opportunities in first institutional equity rounds with initial investments of $500,000 to $3 million. For more information about Altira see http://www.altiragroup.com. For additional information, contact Peter Duncan at pduncan@microseismicinc.com or visit the company's Web site at: http://www.microseismicinc.com |
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