MTEM has been commissioned by Caribbean operating company Ten Degrees North Energy Ltd. to survey a mature producing oil field in Trinidad. The oilfield services company is using its revolutionary R-Land system in the Tabaquite field.


MTEM (multi-transient electromagnetic) can find bypassed oil in mature producing fields. It can also determine, before the need for drilling, whether deep underground reservoirs contain hydrocarbon deposits.


Jason Robinson, MTEM’s vice president for North and South America, said, “This is another significant step forward in the development of our company. We have been actively seeking out markets for our technology and are currently carrying out work in India. The drive to exploit national resources rather than rely on expensive imports is a major opportunity for MTEM and one which we will be looking to exploit.


“Similarly, there are opportunities in the Caribbean – and indeed in many parts of North and South America – to utilize our system in order that a company like Ten Degrees North can prolong the life of its resources.”


Dr Jim Lee-Young, CEO of Ten Degrees North Energy, added, “Any new development which can extend the operational life of a field has to be welcomed, and we welcome the opportunity to work with MTEM at the cutting edge of hydrocarbon recovery.”


MTEM believes its technology will radically reduce drilling risk and potentially save the oil industry billions of dollars per year.


Electromagnetic surveys are designed to provide a measure of changes in subsurface resistivity with depth below ground. This information can be useful in locating recoverable oil and gas since hydrocarbons are more resistive to electrical current than the water typically found at similar depths.


The potential to use electromagnetic surveying has been known by industry for some time but limited in application. The advent of modern receiving instruments, computing power and analysis methods combined with techniques developed in recent years has lead to the development of Multi-Transient electromagnetic surveying applications for reservoirs both onshore and in shallow marine applications.