ION Geophysical announced last week that the Company has now finalised plans to launch the second phase of its North Sea 3D multi-client program, following on from Phase 1, which commenced in August 2020.
The field data for this latest addition will be collected from approximately late April to mid-October. Located in an area that is currently generating a lot of interest – see last week’s article on Shell announcing to drill the Pensacola well – the Mid North Sea High survey covers one of the few underexplored areas offshore the UK.
Most of the ~11,000 sq km survey will be acquired this summer, covering an area six times larger than the initial phase (see map). Since the program launched last August, additional underwriting was secured and additional acreage was awarded within the survey area, further validating the program’s merits and expanding the potential client base for this new data asset.
The combination of Shearwater’s modern acquisition technology and ION’s top tier imaging produced excellent subsurface images that have revealed new insights into this complex Zechstein play. Therefore, ION is pleased to have selected Shearwater GeoServices to return this year to acquire the data for the second phase. Final data for the first and second phases remains on track for delivery in Q2 2021 and Q2 2022, respectively.
