OGA awards eight deals for UKCS subsurface databases

UK’s Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has awarded £1.5 million ($1.9 million) of contracts to purchase comprehensive subsurface databases to encourage further exploration in underexplored areas of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

OGA said on Monday that the datasets purchased would underpin much of the OGA’s work across the exploration and production (E&P) lifecycle including promotion of future licensing rounds and undeveloped discoveries, regional exploration projects, area strategies and asset stewardship.

Four of the contracts awarded will result in the data purchased being made freely available to the general public, industry, and academia.

In total eight contracts were awarded by OGA. Namely, APT won a contract for the West of Shetlands geochemical database; Belltree for reservoir benchmarking; CGG for well logs and key databases; and Geostrat for Jurassic stratigraphy of the Central North Sea.

Also, Getech received a contract for UKCS satellite gravity data; Hannon Westwood for a prospect and lead database; IHS Markit for fields and discoveries database and prospect and lead database; and IKON for rock physics studies.

APT’s geochemical database along with CGG, Geostrat, and Getech’s databases will be made available to the public during 2017.

Gunther Newcombe, operations director at OGA, said: “The UKCS remains a highly attractive exploration destination and to maximize the economic recovery of oil and gas from the UKCS, exploration activity must be revitalized in both mature and frontier plays. Comprehensive, high quality well, seismic and subsurface databases which are made freely available are critical to this.”