3D seismic survey covering 20,530 sq. km area in Santos Basin, Brazil. Using two marine vessels for a total of 696 survey-days, 19,465,147 shots were recorded amounting to about 75 Terra Byte of data. The data will be processed simultaneously at Singapore and Houston by Jan 2003.

ONGC Videsh Limited has agreed to invest up to US$30 million in two Libyan Blocks. This will transfer 49% stake in the blocks LC 188 & LC 189 currently held by Turkish Petroleum Overseas to OVL. The deal however still needs approval of government of Libya.(source Dow Jones)

Bangladesh gas exploration faces a dilemma as a joint report by energy ministry and Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has placed the country's gas reserves at equivalent of about 40 years current consumption. The report recommends finding more gas reserves prior to exports, which requires an investment of about US$4 billion. However the international companies involved in the exploration have shown unwillingness to invest unless exports of reserves already found by them are allowed. (Reuters)

CGG of France has bought 7.5% of PGS from market as price fell following the failure of merger of PGS with Veritas. CGG backed Jens Ultvet Moe, has taken over as Chairman of PGS. However there is no talk of any likely merger between CGG and PGS. (Reuters)

Calendar of Forthcoming Events

EAGE has announced following events for year 2003

• Conference & Exhibition at Stavanger, Norway from June 2-5.
• EAGE/SEG Summer Research Workshop at Trieste from Aug 31 -Sept 4.
• EAGE Workshop on “Fault and Top Seals: What do we know and where do we go?” At La Grande Motte, France from Sept 1-4.
• 1st North Africa/ Mediterranean Petroleum & Geosciences Conference and Exhibition at Tunis from Oct 6-9.
  (details at www.eage.nl/conferences)

OBITUARIES

SPG notes with profound sorrow the loss of following eminent geoscientists.

1. Sh. J P Vaish (4/5/1932-19/7/2002), who

retired from ONGC as DGM (Wells) after a distinguished career spanning over 31 years, breathed his last at Dehradun. Sh. Vaish was instrumental in introduction of modern logging practices in ONGC. Author of a book on the subject, he holds distinction of logging the first well in Cambay Basin. Sh. Vaish also taught as professor at ISM Dhanbad from 1988-1991. He is survived by his wife and two sons.

2. Sh. Ratan Kr. Sinha (12.8.1949 - 14.8.2002) a Superintending Geophysicist with ONGC breathed his last at Vadodara. A post-graduate in Physics, Sh. Sinha obtained an M Tech. From IIT Kharagpur and excelled in all walks of API since April 1982. He contributed significantly to E&D work in Wadasma prospect and successfully headed a 3D Seismic Party. He is survived by his mother, wife and a son.

"Pioneers of sixties"

Sitting Left to Right - S/Shri U C Srivastava, M K Sen, I A Siddiqi, V C Ramaiah, P N Mukharjee

Standing Left to Right - S/Shri V B Naidu, I M Arora,
M Krishnamurthy, N N Chopra, M M Kaila,
S C Mishra, V B Manne