The Oil and Gas Authority UK (OGA) has awarded £1.5 million of contracts to purchase subsurface databases and information sources to encourage further exploration in under explored areas of the UK Continental Shelf (UKCS).

The datasets purchased will 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 have been awarded to: APT: West of Shetlands geochemical database; Belltree: Reservoir benchmarking; CGG: Well logs and key databases; Geostrat: Jurassic stratigraphy of the Central North Sea; Getech: UKCS satellite gravity data; Hannon Westwood: Prospect and lead database; IHS Markit: Fields and discoveries database and prospect and lead database; IKON: Rock physics studies

The following datasets will be made available to download via the OGA’s website during 2017; APT (geochemical database only), CGG, Geostrat, Getech.

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