The UK’s oil and gas regulator has awarded four contracts worth about £1million for the supply of reprocessed offshore seismic data.
The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has handed the deals to Shearwater GeoServices, Geokinetics, DMT Petrologic and Quality Seismic.
The project will focus on the Anglo-Paris basin offshore, the Wessex and Weald Basins onshore, the South West Approaches, the Solway Firth, the Unst Basin and the East Shetland Platform.
The data will be released to the industry in 2017 alongside recently acquired new seismic, gravity and magnetics data of South West Britain and East Shetland Platform.
Nick Richardson, OGA exploration and new ventures manager, said: “This combined seismic dataset, covers an offshore area equivalent to twice the United Kingdom’s landmass (approximately 500,000 square kilometers) and provides an unprecedented dataset to stimulate exploration activity.
“These data have the potential to unlock potential in areas that have not been explored for decades and will support the evaluation of acreage to be made available in future OGA licensing rounds.”
The UK Government has stumped up £40million in the last two years to pay for two seismic acquisition programmes aimed at stoking offshore exploration, which has been in the doldrums recently amid low oil prices.
The first seismic campaign covered the mid-North Sea High and the Rockall Basin, while the second looked at the East Shetland Platform and South West Britain.
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