Jul 16 2010
R&D Magazine has announced that, QMax EM3 Ocean-Bottom EM receiver, which was introduced by Quasar Geophysical Technologies, is one of the 100 winners of the 48th Annual R&D Awards.
These awards have been instituted to honor the introduction of 100 products which are significant, technologically, in the market during the previous year. To develop QMax, Quasar roped in Dr. Steven Constable of UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography who gave testing support and technical advice. The company also used its indigenous expertise on electromagnetic sensing.
This electromagnetic Ocean bottom receiver has been built to survey deposits of oil & gas, under the water focused on the aspects of safety, quality of data and operational efficiency. The “strike rate” of these deposits discovered for each exploratory well drilling, could be increased by using these receivers. An added advantage would be, the reduction in the number of such wells being drilled thereby lessening the expenses arising due to drilling. Eventually, this might lead to a decrease in the prices of gas at the petrol pump level.
Drilling of fewer wells would also signify lower environmental risk and impact, and might show up the presence of compounds like methane hydrates which could prove to be a hazard when oil is drilled, but may also prove to be a source of energy in the future.
According to the CEO of QuasarGeo, George Eiskamp, getting the award attests that Quasar has the ability to be a pioneer and also improve the EM sensors. They would still pursue the State of the Art in R&D and also look for ways of improving the marine sources generally used during survey operations. The company would also try to apply EM airborne and land systems to the oil & gas exploration industry.
The R&D 100 awards have been considered to be a yardstick of merit for diverse industry sectors like high-energy physics, telecommunications, software, bio-technology and manufacturing. These awards have proved to be vital to gauge the commercialization efforts and validation of the breakthroughs of industrial giants, academic institutions and government laboratories.
Awards have been won this year, for products that range from next-generation automobiles, drive management systems to biodegradable packaging by well-known names in the industry such as Toyota, Siemens, Intel Corp., Frito Lay and IBM. Innovations from academic and government laboratories like MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory, Lawrence-Livermore National Laboratory and Oak Ridge National Laboratory were also recognized.
QuasarGeo was basically created to supply EM survey instrumentation to the oil & gas sector and mineral and resource exploration companies. It belongs to Quasar Group of Companies owned by the employees which produce advanced EM sensors for diverse fields such as medical device development, geophysics, biotechnology and defense.