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`careful operation, so they were interested in doing that,
`so they came onboard quite early.
`Are there other conditions at certain places of the
`Q.
`world that get a real benefit from this technology?
`A.
`Yes. There are areas where you've got a lot of
`currents, and the boats is going at four and a half knots,
`something like that, which is about five and a half miles
`an hour. And so, if you have a cross current, then your
`streamers are going to be pushed out sideways.
`Well, if they're regular, you can live with
`that, but if you have odd currents and you get odd currents
`maybe where you have a change in water depth, currents by
`the outflow of rivers, big rivers, particularly around
`Brazil, imagine what the Amazon water flow does, or in West
`Africa we have projects there. So that's an area you want
`to be able to steer them. There's another -- another very
`specialized area which is in the Arctic, because the
`shooting window in the Arctic is very short. You've
`obviously -- you've got to wait for the ice to break up.
`So if you can steer your streamers then even though there
`are icebergs floating around and you have to do some fairly
`hairy maneuvers, you can steer around them and you can get
`started. And you can add a month to your shooting window,
`and that's very, very important for our customers.
`Were there companies during this window after you
`Q.
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`Johnny C. Sanchez, RMR, CRR - jcscourtreporter@aol.com
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`Direct-Walker/By Mr. LoCascio
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`low technical criteria, and then take the cheapest because
`it's the taxpayers' money they're spending, and they have
`to look after.
`
`But in these cases what they wanted to do
`they knew they needed lateral steering, so it was a direct
`negotiation. A fairly tough one, but it was direct.
`Due to your ability to be the only company offering
`Q.
`this patented technology, were you able to get premiums
`from your customers on price?
`A.
`We were, yes. We started with quite a high price and
`then as we built up the fleet, we adjusted that and we
`settled by about 2000, late 2000, late 2004, which is when
`I was -- took over responsibility. I said: Look, let's
`aim for about a 40 percent revenue increase. And it
`didn't really look like 40 percent to the customers, but
`that was 40 percent.
`Can you explain what you mean by if you're going to
`Q.
`increase your revenues as a company by 40 percent, how
`that can be anything but a 40 percent increase for the
`customer?
`A.
`Yes. I said we're more efficient. So you imagine
`that I'm doing 4Ds in the North Sea, and it takes me a
`month and I've got maybe -- conventionally I'd have
`$10 million revenue, and another month of $10 million, if
`I can do that in three weeks, then and I've got a bit of
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`business.
`During that time, were there WesternGeco customers
`Q.
`that developed a preference for using steerable streamers?
`A.
`Yes, there were a lot. I said Statoil had done the
`first project and then once they'd done it and they saw
`that we could control the streamers, then they said, okay,
`right, all 4D going forward, immediately, we want lateral
`steering on all of them.
`Shell used it, so we did a project in
`Malaysia in late 2001 to early 2002. And they were
`delighted because we just -- is this picture -- yeah, the
`picture is still up. One of the other things you can do
`with it if we -- customers have an irritating habit of
`having production facilities in a producing oil field, and
`they want us to be as close as -- they want us to get as
`close as we can to it.
`To the rig?
`Q.
`A.
`To the rig.
`Now, we normally steer our streamers to be
`straight. That's what you do. But you may say: All
`right. What I want to do because the vessel has a -- can't
`get that close to the rig because of safety concerns,
`absolutely right -- that you can actually deliberately
`steer your streamers sideways so that you can get coverage
`very near the rig, just by careful survey, planning and
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`launched Q-Marine that give direct awards to WesternGeco
`because you were the only ones that could offer this
`technology?
`A.
`Yes. We had lots of them. I said Statoil after the
`first survey. They gave us -- we had a five-year contract
`that was about 15 surveys, 15, 4D surveys. We had direct
`awards from Shell, direct towards from Total, direct
`awards from Chevron in the 2003 area.
`And we also had direct awards, quite big
`ones from ONGC for example, which is the National Oil
`Company of India. That was about $300 million, that was
`about three or four seasons work.
`We had direct awards from Petro Gas. They
`had a very complicated 4D, 3D, 4D they wanted. And a
`direct award from PEMEX, which is the Mexican National Oil
`Company for two seasons work, our vessel for a couple of
`years.
`Was it unusual for companies, particularly national
`Q.
`oil companies to award direct awards?
`A.
`Unheard of.
`Why?
`Q.
`A.
`Because they spend -- effectively they are spending
`taxpayer dollars, and so they have to be open and
`transparent and they do genuinely open public bids
`openings or everyone bids and they set quite often fairly
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`Johnny C. Sanchez, RMR, CRR - jcscourtreporter@aol.com
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`Johnny C. Sanchez, RMR, CRR - jcscourtreporter@aol.com
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`WESTERNGECO Exhibit 2034, pg. 1
`PGS v WESTERNGECO
`IPR2014-01477
`
`