A new 3D seismic survey offshore Greenland is poised to be carried out in 2012 as the hunt for hydrocarbons in the Arctic region continues.
The work is to be done by Dubai-based survey firm Polarcus, which said today it had received a letter of award from an undisclosed client for the project.
Work will start in July 2012 and is expected to last for about 70 days.
Edinburgh-based Cairn Energy has led a resurgence of interest in the Arctic after starting drilling in the region last year and continuing this year.
Cairn has previously said its exploration acreage off Greenland could hold billions of barrels of oil and the firm has already carried out an extensive seismic survey programme.
Earlier this month, Cairn said it was still confident of success off Greenland despite its five-well 2011 drilling campaign failing to make a commercial find.
It also announced it was in talks over a farm-out for future operations and considering further seismic surveys in the Lady Franklin and Atammik areas off the coast of Greenland.
The US Geological Survey (USGS) has estimated the region could potentially contain 50billion barrels of oil equivalent.
Before Cairn came along, only six exploration wells had been drilled in the area – five in the 1970s and the sixth in 2000, all to the west of Greenland and south of the undrilled Baffin Bay region.