UK awards PGS, WesternGeco contracts for new seismic campaign

LONDON -- The OGA has awarded contracts for the second government-funded £20 million ($26.5 million) seismic campaign to promote underexplored areas of the UK Continental Shelf.

PGS and WesternGeco have been awarded the contracts to acquire seismic data from the East Shetland Platform and South West Britain, respectively. The program is anticipated to collect between 10,000 and 15,000 km of new seismic data from under-explored frontier areas.

The acquisition is due to begin in July, subject to receiving the relevant environmental approvals, and will be supplemented by selective reprocessing of legacy seismic datasets. Acquisition is expected to be completed during fourth-quarter 2016 and released to industry in second-quarter 2017, mirroring the 2015 seismic program, which saw more than 40,000 line km of new and reprocessed data successfully released to industry earlier this year.

The seismic acquisition program forms part of a package of measures designed to support the oil and gas sector, announced by the Prime Minister earlier this year. The areas were selected following engagement with industry and endorsed by the MER UK Exploration Board.

Gunther Newcombe, director of E&P, OGA, said, “Last year’s program, which covered the Rockall Trough and Mid-North Sea High areas, sparked significant interest in these frontier areas of the UKCS with more than 3,000 downloads of the standard seismic data packages. Studies of these areas are being carried out which will provide valuable insight into their potential ahead of the 29th Offshore Licensing Round which we hope to announce imminently, subject to completion of the Strategic Environmental Assessment. The 2016 program is focusing on under-explored frontier areas where no substantial seismic has been acquired in decades. It is expected these areas will be made available for licensing in the 31st Frontier Licensing Round, which will be held in 2018.”

The PGS vessel Nordic Explorer is scheduled to carry out seismic surveys across the East Shetland Platform, which includes the East Orkney basin, East Fair Isle basin and Dutch Bank basin. The WesternGeco vessel WG Magellan is scheduled to carry out seismic surveys around South West Britain, including; the Celtic Sea, Western English Channel, Bristol Channel, St George’s Channel and the Irish Sea.