Following a competitive tendering process during Q1 2018 and a £5 million grant from HM Treasury, the Oil and Gas Authority (OGA) has awarded new contracts to continue to stimulate exploration activity on the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

A contract to fund the first year of a four-year UKCS Petroleum Systems Project has been awarded to a consortium comprising Lloyd’s Register and IGI Ltd, which will compile a comprehensive database of ‘legacy geo-chemical data’ acquired across the UKCS over the past five decades.

This database will include information and analysis from the legacy well-sampling databases currently curated by the British Geological Survey on behalf of the OGA. On completion, all the geochemical and geological data will be made available to industry and academic communities.

An additional contract was awarded to Ikon Science to evaluate the rock physics and seismic-amplitude responses of the “under-explored Jurassic and Triassic plays of the Central North Sea and East Shetland Basin areas”.

These findings will be shared with the wider exploration community ahead of the ‘32nd Mature Licensing Round’ and — if successful — used by the OGA to “promote unlicensed opportunities in the UKCS prospect inventory, where the concept can be applied”.

To support industry further, the OGA is also working with Agile Scientific to provide free geo-computing training courses aimed at giving sub-surface practitioners working on UK licences the opportunity to gain ‘key data science skills’.

Jo Bagguley, principal regional geologist for the OGA, 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.”