CGG in seismic shoot off Shetland

French seismic survey company CGG has started acquisition of a high-density, rich-azimuth, towed-streamer multi-client survey in the UK West Shetland Basin.

According to the company, the 3,600 square-kilometer survey has received strong industry support and been designed in collaboration with major international oil companies.

It focuses on delivering high-resolution seismic data in a prospective but underexplored area north-west of the Shetland Isles over the northern part of the Rona Ridge.

The innovative acquisition geometry is designed to image multiple targets from shallow Tertiary and Cretaceous plays to complex fractured Devono-Carboniferous reservoirs by undershooting the volcanic intrusions and shallow unconformities present in the area. Two vessels, the Oceanic Vega and the Geo Caribbean, are being deployed. Each vessel operates triple sources using simultaneous source technology.

The data will be processed in depth using CGG’s state-of-the-art broadband imaging technology, including advanced de-blending and Full-Waveform Inversion velocity modeling.

Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO, CGG said: “Until now, oil and gas companies interested in the exploration potential of this part of the West Shetland Basin have lacked high-quality seismic data. We expect our new rich-azimuth images to reveal an unprecedented level of detail in this exciting frontier area.”

Per CGG, a fast-track PreSDM data set will be available in Q1 2019, while the final data will be available in mid-2019.

West of Shetland is a bright spot

As for the Shetland area, energy intelligence group Wood Mackenzie has earlier this month described the West of Shetland region as bright spot for the industry, which will prove a source of production growth in the years to 2030.

Kevin Swann, from Wood Mackenzie’s North Sea upstream team, took a closer look at why the West of Shetland appears to be the UK’s last area for genuine growth, remaining a core area for the majors.

“The majority of UK oil reserves for BP, Shell and Chevron are located West of Shetland, and four projects in the province will drive UK production growth through the 2020s – Clair Ridge, Clair South, Cambo and Rosebank,” he said.

“The West of Shetland is also under explored, with less than 160 exploration wells drilled in the region to date. Other UK regions have had more than 500 wells drilled.”

Swann said that material exploration success for Siccar Point at the 1.4 trillion cubic feet Lyon gas prospect could create a new northern gas hub, which could unlock another 300 billion cubic feet of discovered gas that is currently stranded.

Other projects, such as Siccar Point’s Cambo development, will add infrastructure to the region, giving a new potential export route for any future discoveries.

“Fractured basement is the big wildcard,” Mr Swann said. “With an estimated 2.8 billion barrels of oil equivalent of contingent resource in Hurricane Energy’s fractured basement portfolio, all eyes will be on the Lancaster early production system, which is due to start production early 2019.”

With large-scale decommissioning kicking in throughout the rest of the UK, West of Shetland will be the main tax contributor to UK coffers by 2030, Wood Mackenzie sad.

Offshore Energy Today Staff