Ronny Setså, Author at GeoExpro

Posts by Ronny Setså

A new seabed minerals frontier emerges

American Samoa is emerging as a new potential frontier for seabed minerals, joining global players like Japan, India, and Norway in the race to commence seafloor mineral extraction. In April, the pioneering US-based deep-sea mining company Impossible Metals, requested the…

Ronny Setså

June 1, 2025

“Dark oxygen” paper receives more criticism

Even though the scientific paper was published during the summer holiday, it has garnered significant attention from various media outlets and the scientific community. Evidence of dark oxygen production at the abyssal seafloor was published in Nature Geoscience by an international…

Ronny Setså

August 13, 2024

A frontrunner in deep-sea minerals

The Norwegian deep-sea mineral community closely followed the talks from Nagase Kunpei and Kiyotaka Orita of the Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC) during the Deep Sea Minerals Conference in Bergen a few months ago. After Norway recently…

Ronny Setså

August 9, 2024

Exploring for gas – for the first time

“We have practically never looked for gas in the Barents Sea. All exploration wells have had oil as their target, and all discoveries of gas have been accidental”, said Dag Mustad, Asset Manager at Aker BP when he gave a…

Ronny Setså

July 29, 2024

386 blocks

It is 59 years since Norway announced the first round of hydrocarbon concessions for the Norwegian continental shelf. At that time, the offer included 278 blocks south of the 62nd parallel, of which 81 were applied for and 78 awarded.…

Ronny Setså

July 12, 2024

Drilling on the seabed

The deep sea is pitch dark, but the two ROVs provide plenty of “working light” for the drilling machine that is standing on the seabed in the hilly, inhospitable terrain that makes up the underwater mountain range that stretches through…

Ronny Setså

June 22, 2024

An accidental discovery of a large mineral deposit

The aim of the drilling operation was to learn more about subsurface water circulation by drilling into a fault. But when operations began on the selected topographical high along the northern flank of the Mohns Ridge, it quickly became clear…

Ronny Setså

May 20, 2024

Finding deep sea minerals with oil and gas technology

“With conventional exploration for oil and gas, electromagnetic measurements (EM) are used to map resistivity in prospects – hydrocarbons are more resistive than brines. When we are looking for minerals, the opposite is true. It is comparable to using a…

Ronny Setså

March 22, 2024

Lots of activity but limited resource growth

Every year in January, the Norwegian Offshore Directorate – which until the turn of the year was called the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate – summarizes the activities on the Norwegian continental shelf during the previous year. Director Torgeir Stordal began the…

Ronny Setså

January 16, 2024

Norway opens for seabed mineral activities

The final step in a years-long process was made in the Norwegian Parliament on January 9th, 2024. The four largest political parties, representing a strong majority, voted to open an area covering about 280.000 km2 for seabed minerals activities. Norway…

Ronny Setså

January 10, 2024

What moves a grain?

Plume dispersion is not solely a matter of distance from the mine site, physical processeses are also important”, said Thomas Peacock, professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at the Underwater Minerals Conference (UMC) in Rotterdam in October. One of…

Ronny Setså

January 3, 2024

Norway is getting a new marine industry

The governing parties, the Labour Party and the Center Party, together with the Conservative Party and the Progressive Party, have secured a majority in parliament on the opening of mineral operations on the Norwegian continental shelf. This was announced at a…

Ronny Setså

December 5, 2023

The global energy sector from a subsurface perspective

Posts by Ronny Setså

A new seabed minerals frontier emerges

“Dark oxygen” paper receives more criticism

A frontrunner in deep-sea minerals

Exploring for gas – for the first time

386 blocks

Drilling on the seabed

An accidental discovery of a large mineral deposit

Finding deep sea minerals with oil and gas technology

Lots of activity but limited resource growth

Norway opens for seabed mineral activities

What moves a grain?

Norway is getting a new marine industry

Subscribe