ViaLogy PLC, an innovator of network-centric, real-time processing platforms for sensor applications, recently announced that its QuantumRD oil exploration technology and service has been credited with locating with a major new oil deposit on the Galba Prospect in South Central Texas. Software-based seismic interpretation service for oil-and-gas reservoir discovery and characterization, the technology accurately predicted the size, location and porosity of three reservoirs.

The successful drilling effort and oil strike based on the ViaLogy analysis located reservoirs at increasing depths estimated to contain a total of more than 2 million barrels of recoverable reserves. The company’s contract with Atascosa Exploration LLC of San Antonio for the Galba Prospect foresees multiple wells on the lease, now determined to be four or five, targeted on the three reservoirs and positioned by ViaLogy. The first well, just completed, has located a reservoir with an oil deposit, which will produce estimated 153,000 barrels of crude oil. Atascoca plans extractions of 50 precent of the recoverable reserves in first 3 years. Galba Prospect production will begin immediately.

ViaLogy’s role in the Galba Prospect project included the design and acquisition of new, high-resolution 3D seismic survey data, integrated geoseismic and geological assessment, and positioning of the drill site. ViaLogy collaborated closely with Atascosa’s geology and production team. Oil was found at the depth and with the porosity ViaLogy predicted in the Upper Wilcox formation, and all other parameters conformed to the company’s analysis and its determination of coordinates for the drilling site.

ViaLogy believes that its geoseismic interpretation technology will address a problem faced by the oil industry worldwide, to avoid drilling dry holes. In Texas, only four out of 10 exploratory wells, including those drilled with the aid of seismic technology, find oil or gas in economically producible quantities, and abortive attempts are costly. According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration statistics, the 2006 average cost for drilling an on-shore dry hole in the United States exceeded $450,000. The success of the Galba Project reinforces QuantumRD’s value proposition for locating oil reservoirs, while lowering the probability of dry holes.

Working with Atascosa, ViaLogy plans to market the QuantumRD technology and service initially to independent U.S. exploration companies.