The Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has awarded two contracts to stimulate exploration activity on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).
Image: An offshore drilling rig. Photo: courtesy of suwatpo/FreeDigitalPhotos.net.
The new contracts, through Government funding, has been awarded following a competitive tendering process launched during the first quarter of 2018.
A consortium comprising Lloyd’s Register (LR) and IGI has been awarded a contract to fund the first year of a four-year UKCS petroleum systems project.
The partners will compile a comprehensive database of legacy geochemical data acquired across the UKCS over the past five decades.
The database will comprise provision of sample information and analysis from the well sampling databases which are currently curated by the British Geological Survey (BGS) on behalf of the OGA.
Upon completion of the work, the OGA plans to make available the geochemical and supporting geological databases to industry and academic communities.
Additionally, the OAG has awarded a separate contract to Ikon Science to assess the rock physics and seismic amplitude responses of the underexplored Jurassic and Triassic plays of the Central North Sea and East Shetland Basin areas.
Findings from the work is planned to be made available before the 32nd Mature Licensing Round scheduled in mid-2019.
The OGA said that it is also working with Agile Scientific to provide free geo-computing training in both Aberdeen and London during Q3 2018.
It aims to help subsurface practitioners working on UK licenses to unlock more insights from subsurface data throughout the lifecycle of an asset.
Moreover, the OGA, in collaboration with Agile Scientific, plans to host two machine-learning boot camps and subsurface hackathons in Aberdeen and London in November 2018.
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.”
The contracts will receive funding through the UK government’s £5m grant which announced earlier to the OGA for oil and gas exploration.