The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has handed a Scottish university £250,000 for exploration studies in the North Sea.
Heriot-Watt’s School of Energy, Geoscience, Infrastructure & Society will use the grant to evaluate the geology and hydrocarbon prospectivity of the western platform and Mid North Sea High areas of the central North Sea.
The grant comes after the OGA provided £700,000 of Government funding to be invested in the development of a world class 3D visualisation facility at the university’s Lyell Centre in Edinburgh. The new facility has been named after eminent Scottish geologist, May Ogilvie-Gordon who was born in Aberdeenshire in 1864.
Professor John Underhill, Heriot-Watt’s Professor of Exploration Geoscience said the award will support a two year full time post-doctoral research position.
He said: “I have since learnt that the award was won in the face of stiff competition as there were a total of eight bids involving ten universities.
“The award was also aided and facilitated by our recent successful bid to house the Oil and Gas Authority’s 3D Visualisation Suite in the Lyell Centre at the Edinburgh campus.
“The state of the art equipment will help better interpret complex geological and engineering data and the open access facility will support the dissemination of data and analytical tools to academia and industry alike.
“It will be named after our illustrious alumna, Dame May Ogilvie-Gordon.”
The two awards mean that OGA has invested almost £1million in Heriot-Watt and the Lyell Centre to date.
Dr Nick Richardson, OGA’s Head of Exploration and New Ventures said: “The post-doctoral research projects will be run and overseen by globally-recognised technical experts, and the Heriot-Watt team, led by Professor Underhill, is ideally-placed to improve the fundamental geological understanding of the Mid North Sea Area and help stimulate vital exploration activity.
“The level of competition for the awards underlines the strength of energy and geoscience research at Heriot-Watt, and the OGA look forward to working together collaboratively on this project over the next two years.”
Heriot-Watt’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor Richard Williams, said: “Attracting funding from this new source is a positive endorsement of the high academic standards Heriot-Watt University is known for.”
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