The mapping of the northeastern part of the new Norwegian maritime zone in the Barents Sea started last year. The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has acquired seismic data on assignment from the Norwegian government. The acquisition is part of the authorities’ efforts to obtain a better overview of potential oil and gas resources on the Norwegian shelf.
This year’s mapping has been conducted from the seismic vessel “Artemis Atlantic”, belonging to Dolphin Geophysical. The operation lasted a total of 82 days. A total of 13 200 kilometres of seismic data has been acquired.
The seismic data have been continuously transmitted to a data processing centre for further processing. Geologists at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate will now interpret them.
”The areas surveyed this summer are not opened for petroleum activities, and we know little about the subsurface conditions there. The mapping will provide important knowledge of these parts of the shelf”, says Sissel Eriksen, Director of exploration in NPD, to the directorate’s web site.
The southeastern parts of the Norwegian part of the Barents Sea has already been mapped and constitutes the key area in the 23rd Norwegian licensing round, which has a deadline on January 14, as BarentsObserver reported.
