The UK Oil and Gas Authority has released the Invitation To Tender (ITT) for the 2016-2017 UK Government funded seismic acquisition and processing program.
According to OGA, the successful recipient of the contract will be required to survey areas over South West Britain including the Celtic Sea, Western English Channel, Irish Sea and also the East Shetland Platform. These areas were selected after consultation with industry.
What is more, OGA is preparing a separate tender invitation for the reprocessing of legacy seismic data. The invitation will be issued in due course, OGA said.
This follows the successful seismic survey of the Rockall Trough and Mid-North Sea High areas completed in 2015. The project delivered approximately 40,000 km of new and legacy data which was published under the Open Government Licence.
In addition, in line with the recently issued OGA Corporate Plan, three separate ITTs are open for regional and field support engineering services, subsurface studies and reservoir evaluation services and geoscience project services. OGa says that these contracts will replace the current Oil & Gas Maximising Recovery Programme (OGMRP) contracts and will be three years in duration.
Industry encouraged
Oil & Gas UK’s economics director, Mike Tholen, said the industry was encouraged by the Oil and Gas Authority’s (OGA) swift action in publishing the invitations to tender for the acquisition of new seismic data and other subsurface work.
Tholen said: “In consultation with industry, the OGA is focusing on the frontier regions of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS) including areas over South West Britain such as the Celtic Sea, Western English Channel, Irish Sea and the East Shetland Platform. The acquisition of high quality data from these areas will significantly contribute to the quality and quantity of subsurface information currently available, with a view to boosting future exploration activity.
“The government’s commitment, through OGA, to make a second £20 million available to support the industry’s effort to stimulate exploration on the UKCS is very welcome.”