GeoPartners, in partnership with Seabird Exploration Multi-Client and DownUnder GeoSolutions, has announced a new multiclient 2D (MC2D) seismic project in the Frontier UK Rockall Basin offshore the north west coast of Scotland.
The Rockall Regional 2013/2014 project is the first significant data acquisition in the UK Rockall basin for more than a decade, according to GeoPartners.
According to the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC), there have been just two significant hydrocarbon discoveries in the Rockall Basin. One of those was in the UK sector. The Benbecula well 154/1-1 tested gas from Paleocene basin-floor fan deposits.
A second discovery was made in the Irish sector. The Dooish well 12/2-1 is reported to have tested gas condensate from Permo-Triassic sandstones.
A successful 2013 reconnaissance program achieved a step-change in data quality over existing legacy data and paved the way for a comprehensive multiclient 2D seismic project, the second phase of which was acquired during July and August 2014, said GeoPartners.
GeoPartners said a total 5000-line km of geologically focused data will shortly be available for interpretation. The recent acquisition has adopted the same long offset broad band approach successfully piloted in the 2013 acquisition and processing.
In a report on the Rockall basin, highlighting the discoveries made, DECC said: "These discoveries confirm the presence of at least locally active petroleum systems within the Rockall Basin. Nevertheless, the greatest risk for its Eocene plays is the areal extent of Jurassic and possible Lower Cretaceous organic-rich source rocks at depth, and of viable migration routes from these into the Eocene section."
Part of the Rockall basin is covered by the Hatton Rockall Marine Protection Area, a designation which aims to protect features of the seabed in the area, including deep-sea sponge aggregations and offshore deep-muds.
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