Мурманская МИЛЯ. 2018 г. №4.

CLOSE-UP - Specialists in the field of geophysics are really all piece ones as flying aces. A few oil and gas experts can fully under­ stand geophysical study findings. It takes years of training and practical work in order to interpret initial data confidently. In this connection, our social policy gives prior­ ity to creation of favourable conditions for good performance of employees, their pro­ fessional growth. MAGE staff is high sci­ entific: there are candidates of sciences, doctors of sciences, laureates of state prizes. Thus, for today we have no staff problems which is very important, especial­ ly when some new activities shall be mas­ tered. For example, recently all our vessels have started a new kind of activity -m u lti­ beam echo sounding. We have installed a sufficiently precise multibeam echo sound­ er capable of scanning the sea bottom; it is specified as an obligatory requirement of every customer. But the problem is that any received and displayed signals can be decoded only by the expert in such images. As for instance, an ordinary doctor will un­ derstand nothing in the X-ray image, and the rheumatologist will determine presence or absence of pathologies in joints and liga­ ments. Similarly, in our case, some dedi­ cated specialist should decode the received image, in a certain way, tie it to the data applied, and then submit additional in­ formation on it. Nowadays, we have such professionals and earlier we had to recruit them from other agencies. - Along with conventional kinds of ac ­ tivities, the Company continuously sets up the new ones. Could you, p lease, tell us about some of them? - Indeed, since recently, MAGE staff has begun developing new kinds of ser­ vices. One of them is acquisition of geo­ logical and geophysical data on the sites intended for well drilling by our main clients. The matter is that any processes, related to hydrocarbon production under difficult conditions of the Arctic and continental shelf, require arranging fundamental research be­ fore spudding-in. It is referred to a range of operations to perform prior to drilling on the explored territories where 2D and 3D seis­ mic surveys were carried out. Engineering investigations are performed at promising blocks. They include high resolution seismic survey, acoustics, side-scan sonar survey, multibeam echosounding, sampling etc. In 2017, we performed a large scope of en­ gineering surveys in the Sea of Okhotsk and the Kara Sea. The number of surveys, such as HR seismic survey, continuous seis­ mic profiling, side-scan sonar sounding, hydrometeorological investigations, has in­ creased by almost one and a half times com­ pared with 2016. Electrical methods (NTES and MT sounding) have been added to the range of services provided by MAGE. Another relatively new type of survey for us is the site sea bottom examination by means of remotely operated subsea vehi­ cles (ROVs). One of such vehicles is used in the Far East. And just last year we pur­ chased a new more powerful ROV to use here, in the Barents Sea. A smart credit pol­ icy allowed us doing so. 8 MURMANSK MILE • 4-2018