Chinese onshore survey giant BGP has approached the market seeking a contractor to build a seismic vessel with a dynamic-positioning (DP) system for shallow-water operations.

Contracting sources said that BGP — based in Zhouzhou in China’s Hebei province — has budgeted 147 million yuan ($21.3 million) for the newbuild.

The deadline for bid submissions is 15 September and BGP is looking for the vessel to be completed 14 months after the contract is signed.

The qualified yard should have a track record in building or converting such vessels in the past five years.

Sources said that a clutch of Chinese yards, including Shanghai Shipyard, are ready to bid while offshore yards with a focus on rigs and floating production, storage and offloading vessels are not as keen.

The contract is only on offer to yards registered in China.

BGP’s current shallow-water survey vessel fleet is not equipped with DP systems.

The company owns and operates six survey vessels with 18 streamers in total.

BGP has provided seismic survey services in regions including the US Gulf of Mexico, West Africa, South America, the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the North Sea, the Bay of Bengal, Southeast Asia, the Mediterranean Sea and East Africa.

GX Technology, a subsidiary of US-based group ION Geophysical, has offered BGP’s 12-streamer seismic vessel BGP Prospector for a large seismic campaign over the prolific Campos basin off Brazil.

The 3D survey will be split into two parts and will cover a total area of 17,200 square kilometres ranging from shallow waters to the ultra-deepwater portion of the basin.

In 2009, Ion Geophysical formed a joint venture with BGP, a wholly owned subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, to provide onshore seismic products worldwide.

In the deal, BGP paid $175 million in cash to Ion for a 51% interest in the joint venture and an approximate 16.66% interest in Ion through a common stock issue of about 23.8 million shares.

Early last year, BGP started what it calls the world’s largest continuous 3D survey, covering up to 53,000 square kilometres for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

This shoot comprises up to 30,000 square kilometres of offshore acreage and 23,000 square kilometres onshore. The entire survey is not expected to be completed until 2024.

Rigs And Vessels

BGP in shallow-water seismic vessel hunt