The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has unveiled its latest initiatives to boost exploration activity in the North Sea.
OGA has been trying to encourage oil companies to drill more wells by providing quality seismic data quickly in a timely manner.
The regulator has now awarded a contract to Lloyd’s Register and Devon-based consultancy IGI for the provision of a comprehensive package of geochemical data obtained over the last 50 years.
London-based software firm Ikon Science has been handed a deal to evaluate the “rock physics and seismic amplitude responses” of underexplored parts of the central North Sea and East Shetland Basin. The findings will be made available ahead of the 32nd licensing round.
The initiatives are supported by a £5 million UK Government fund announced by Chancellor Philip Hammond during his visit to Aberdeen in September.
The OGA is also organising training courses in Aberdeen and London during the current quarter to help companies unlock more value from subsurface data.
Plans are also afoot to host two machine learning boot camps and subsurface “hackathons” in November.
OGA principal regional geologist Jo Bagguley said: “The award of this diverse set of contracts continues to demonstrate the OGA’s commitment to reviving exploration activity in the UKCS. Products resulting from the contracts will make significant additional contributions to the seismic, well and map-related data packs already released by the OGA.”