NEOS GeoSolutions

NEOS provides exploration services for the onshore oil & gas and mining industries. The company designs geophysical surveys, oversees airborne and terrestrial geophysical data operations, provides seismic and non-seismic data processing services, and interprets multiple geological, geophysical, and geochemical datasets. Sovereign governments, energy ministries, and natural resource operators use this information to identify, highgrade and quantify natural resource deposits of hydrocarbons, metals and minerals, and groundwater.

NEOS has been at the forefront of the application of predictive analytics techniques for natural resource exploration. NEOS predictive analytics methodologies are designed to identify subtle patterns and correlations within the geo-datasets it analyzes that correspond with known natural resource deposits; once identified, the predictive algorithms search for these same correlative attributes in underexplored areas and rank and highgrade future acreage targeted for natural resource development.

NEOS is privately held and headquartered in Pleasanton, California.

History

NEOS was formed in 2008 when a group of investors extracted the necessary acquisition and interpretation technologies from a natural resource exploration company whose founder, formerly a scientist at NASA, had developed techniques to search for natural resources by applying proprietary signal processing algorithms to remote sensing data, including measurements taken from satellites and fixed-wing aircraft.

NEOS is an advocate of the multi-measurement interpretation approach to natural resource exploration, which involves integrating the broadest possible range of geological, geochemical, geophysical, and petrophysical measurements. The company seeks to make use of geo-data from a variety of sources, including publicly available information, data available for license, and data resident within the archives of its customers. However, airborne remote sensing systems – including satellites, fixed-wing aircraft, and helicopters – provide the vast amount of newly acquired measurements interpreted by the company.

Other companies that acquire airborne geophysical datasets include CGG and Sander Geophysics. Airborne geophysical acquisition allows service providers to survey and assess large swaths of acreage on behalf of oil & gas and mining firms in order to determine their prospectivity potential for natural resource exploration and development. Unlike the more conventional seismic acquisition technique, airborne methods do not require personnel and equipment to be placed directly on the ground for multi-week operations which reduces the risk to the health and safety of acquisition personnel and minimizes the environmental footprint of the surveying operation. Companies that process and interpret multi-measurement geophysical datasets include Fugro-Jason, Mira Geoscience, and Schlumberger.

By 2008, the company’s scientists had developed unique methods to integrate hyperspectral measurements with other geophysical data – including seismic, gravity, magnetic, electromagnetic, and radiometric.

In January 2010, the company hired a new CEO – Jim Hollis, formerly COO at ION Geophysical. During the year, the company announced that it was acquiring a hyperspectral survey over a 29,000 square kilometer region of the Gulf Coast that had been impacted by the April 2010 blowout at BP’s Macondo oil prospect in the Gulf of Mexico.

In January 2011, the company announced that it had raised more than $60 million in expansion capital from its existing investors – Goldman Sachs, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Passport Capital – as well as from new investors including Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Energy Capital Group.

In June 2015, the company attracted additional investment from Ocado co-founder, Jonathan Faiman, as well as from its existing shareholders. In August 2015, NEOS bought the onshore seismic data processing business of ION Geophysical which provided the company with the capabilities to undertake the processing and interpretation of seismic as well as non-seismic geophysical measurements.

Products & Services

NEOS offers a variety of services that are tailored to the client needs depending on the stage of natural resource exploration and development.

• The neoSCAN involves the analytic interpretation of existing geo-data, whether available from 3rd-party vendors, government agencies, universities or research institutions, or NEOS's clients. Since no new data acquisition is required, the neoSCAN allows large areas (in excess of 100,000 km²) to be cost-effectively analyzed in 4–6 months.
• The neoBASIN involves the acquisition of new airborne and terrestrial geophysical data, typically gravity, magnetic, radiometric, electromagnetic and hyperspectral measurements. neoBASIN surveys might be undertaken over areas identified as potentially prospective by the neoSCAN or other areas of interest to natural resource explorers. Typical areas of investigation are 5,000-20,000 km².
• The neoPROSPECTOR involves the acquisition of additional more finely sampled geophysical information, typically 3-D seismic and ground-based magnetotelluric data. neoPROSPECTOR surveys, which might cover 200-500 km²over the most promising acreage, are designed to generate highgraded prospects suitable for drilling and further testing in a 12-18 month time-frame.

Regardless of the project type, NEOS delivers a variety of interpretive products to its customers, including maps of subsurface geology, assessments of basement topography and composition, maps of faults and intrusives (whether crystalline or salt), and highgraded acreage maps that highlight the most prospective areas worthy of further technical analysis and investment.

NEOS has undertaken projects for some of the largest natural resource operators in the world, including ExxonMobil, Shell, ConocoPhillips, ENI, EOG, OXY and Encana. Projects have been undertaken worldwide, but key areas of recent activity include:

• Argentina’s Neuquén Province;
• Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale;
• California’s Ventura Basin;
• Colorado and the Mountain West region;
• The South Atlantic margin;
• Lebanon.

NEOS has completed other projects outside of the oil and gas sector, including those to map:

• Underground carbon dioxide (CO2) deposits;
• Uranium deposits in northern Canada;
• Gold deposits in Nevada.

See also

• List of Oilfield Service Companies

External links

• Official Website
• Company Blog

• Project to Help Highgrade Oil & Gas and Mining prospects in the Neuquén Basin, GeoExPro March 2014.
• Marcellus Resource Potential - A Case Study, URTeC Technical Abstract, August 2014.