![]() ![]() Twenty companies had expressed interest in bidding on one or more of the 14 blocks on offer by the Portuguese Instituto Geológico e Mineiro (IGM). The duo applied for and were awarded blocks 13 and 14, since when the trail has gone cold, with no discernible activity. They were the only companies to table bids in that first Portuguese deepwater round, which was staged late 2002. Repsol YPF and partner RWE-Dea talked of utilizing this proven Tortonian-Messinian sedimentary model and extrapolate westwards into the Algarve basin in Portuguese waters. That said, it is believed that offshore deposits do exist, given Spain’s experience with the Gulf of Cadiz Basin fields Poseidon Norte and Sur, where gas has been successfully produced from Messinian turbidite sands. The hydrocarbons experience offshore Portugal has been even more disappointing, and the first relevant licensing about six years ago yielded a very muted response. However, the company has kept a low profile regarding this. Meanwhile, Hunt Oil was noted in late 2007 as being in talks with the French authorities with a view to acquiring a significant parcel of acreage in the vicinity of the Aquila and Aquitaine Maritime licences. ![]() The company said in a brief statement that further evaluation of the data gathered from this well, together with integration of this data with 3D seismic, would provide a better understanding of any potential of the remaining undrilled structures on the Aquitaine Maritime permit. However, the well, with a planned TD of 2,850 m, did encounter a thick sandstone formation as indicated by seismic. In the event, the $55-million well drilled by the semisubmersible Byford Dolphin was a duster. In August 2007, Verenex spud its Orca-1 well on the neighbouring Aquitaine Maritime block following a 27.5% farm-out agreement with Bordeaux Energy, which had been reached in December 2006. However, there is no evidence of this acreage having been relinquished. The permit has an initial term of three years and provides the right to explore an area of 709 sq km adjacent to the eastern boundary of the Aquitaine Maritime offshore exploration permit, which was already held by the group but was due to expire in 2007. Then there was nothing for several years until, in July 2007, Canadian company Vermilion (a wholly owned offshoot of Verenex) came onto the stage by securing a licence with the French authorities to explore the Aquila permit in the Bay of Biscay. But licence operator Elf declined to pursue it further because of poor reservoir quality, unacceptable oil prices and the high cost of extracting oil from such a remote location. In 1995, there was renewed interest that resulted in the Antares discovery on the Bon Maritime permit (Bay of Biscay). Thirty years ago, high hopes on France’s Atlantic Shelf led to the drilling of 24 wells in the Gulf of Gasgogne, alas with no luck. While a number of promising finds have been made, especially west of Shetland – with three sizable developments producing successfully – and Irish results tantalise, the Bay of Biscay and Iberian waters have yet to yield a meaningful prize. But some energy provinces take a lot more figuring out than others before the door to the prize is unlocked.Ī prime example is surely the Europe Union portion of the Atlantic Frontier, that is, the waters west of France, Ireland, Portugal and Scotland. ROV contaminants continental Shelf currents plastic.As IADC members know all too well, patience is a prerequisite for success in the petroleum industry it’s a basic fact. Understanding the sources of deep sea microplastics, such as marine traffic, is crucial to developing effective mitigation strategies as well as further monitoring campaigns targeting microplastic pollution in areas with significant deep sea biodiversity such as the Porcupine Seabright. ![]() 1) were not correlated with distance from land, depth, or the presence of macrolitter on the seafloor. No microplastic hotspots were identified, and abundances (kg d.w. An extensive survey of the Porcupine Seabight, Porcupine Bank, the Goban Spur, and south-western canyons resulted in identifying microplastics in deep sea sediment surface layers from 33 of the 44 stations sampled (75%), with a total of 83 particles (74 synthetic and 9 natural) recorded. Costs and accessibility often correlate to few deep sea sediment surveys, restricting the number of stations within a given sampling area. Microplastics are ubiquitous emerging contaminants found in every habitat surveyed, building upon international databases globally. ![]()
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