Two licenses have been awarded for speculative seismic, gravity, and magnetic surveys of the Falkland Islands continental shelf in the South Atlantic Ocean.
Spectrum Energy & Information Technology Ltd., Woking, U.K., won the license to survey the northern sector of the shelf. The company plans to acquire 13,000 km of data northwest, north, and northeast of the islands starting in February 1993.
Acquisition will take about 5 months. Data processing will follow immediately, allowing results to be available in second half 1993.
Geco Geophysical Co. Ltd., also of Woking, won a license to survey the southern part of the shelf. Geco plans to mobilize a vessel immediately and start data acquisition in January 1993.
The Geco survey will collect 7,50010,000 km of data, mainly southwest of the islands, but with additional coverage south and southeast.
Acquisition will take 4 months, again with data processing following immediately, leading to results in second half 1993.
When the plan to allow exploration was announced by the British government in September, a diplomatic row broke out between the U.K. and Argentina, which disputes sovereignty of the islands (OGJ, Oct. 5, p.46). That led to a U.K. government statement that cooperation must be agreed with Argentina, and it will not prevent Argentine companies from participating in exploration in the area.
Spectrum and Geco will offer operators the opportunity to subscribe under early participation terms and seek client technical input on the final survey layout.
While Spectrum and Geco will be surveying independently, the companies will cooperate on a technical level to ensure that adequate ties are established between the two surveys.
The surveys mark the first systematic investigation of the area, Geco said. The basins around the Falkland Islands represent one of the few unexplored regions of the world.
Geco anticipates that data acquired under these nonexclusive surveys will be the foundation for assessment of acreage in any future licensing round. Spectrum expects the Falklands Islands authorities to hold an exploration licensing round within 2-3 years.
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