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The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced it is opening a 30-day public comment period as it prepares to act on five permit requests from geophysical companies to conduct seismic surveys for potential oil and gas off the Mid-Atlantic and Southeast coast.

In a notice issued Monday, the agency said its move is a step toward implementing President Trump’s executive order seeking to reopen offshore development on the outer continental shelf, from Delaware south to Georgia

The clock starts running with publishing the notice in Tuesday’s Federal Register. Reviving the process brings back permits that were sought last year from the Obama administration by three Houston-based geophysical companies –  WesternGeco LLC, ION GeoVentures, and Spectrum Geo Inc. — plus CGG, Paris, France, and TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company, Asker, Norway.

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Trump Officials Push for Atlantic Oil Exploration Using Harmful Seismic Blasting. Permits Would Hurt Endangered Whales, Open Way to Offshore Drilling Opposed by East Coast Communities.

The Trump administration today issued draft authorizations to five companies to search for oil off the Atlantic Coast — from Florida to Delaware — using loud seismic airgun blasts that hurt whales, dolphins and other animals. The exploration activities are the first step to opening the Atlantic to new oil drilling.

“Deafening whales and dolphins to hunt for dirty oil in these sensitive coastal environments is reckless and cruel,” said Kristen Monsell, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Seismic blasting is opposed by people along the East Coast who don’t want the oil industry wreaking havoc in the Atlantic. It’s outrageous that the Trump administration is catering to Big Oil by ignoring the needs of wildlife and coastal communities.”

The proposals would allow the firing of seismic airguns from ships every 10 seconds, 24 hours a day, seven days a week at a noise level that would rupture a human eardrum. Nearly 100 municipalities from New Jersey to Florida have adopted resolutions rejecting seismic blasting off the East Coast. And more than 40,000 local businesses and business associations have publicly opposed it, citing threats to marine life and local economies.

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For those that may have missed an excellent read: ‘Surge in Seabed Surveys’

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Visit Paradigm booth #320 at the 79th European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers (EAGE) Annual Convention and Exhibition, in Paris, June 12-15. At EAGE, Paradigm will have a very strong presence showcasing the innovative technologies in our new Paradigm 17 product suite, as well as on high science and collaboration with leading industry partners.

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Ocean Floor Geophysics Inc. (OFG) has been awarded a contract by Global Sea Mineral Resources NV (GSR) for seafloor mineral exploration services.

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4th June,  2017.  To learn more about inApril´s Ocean Bottom Seismic system, our fully automated Data Management system and our compact containerized solutions,  please visit us at booth 610 or email post@inapril.com to arrange a meeting.

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The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management makes publically available a new deepwater bathymetry grid of the northern Gulf of Mexico, created by utilizing 3D seismic data which covers more than 90,000 square miles (Figure 1). The grid provides enhanced resolution compared to existing public bathymetry maps over the region, delivering 10 to 50 times increased horizontal resolution of the salt mini-basin province, abyssal plain, Mississippi Fan, and the Florida Shelf/Escarpment. To create the grid the seafloor was interpreted on over one-hundred 3D seismic time-migrated surveys, then mosaicked together and converted to depth in feet. The grid consists of 1.4 billion, 40-by-40 ft defined cells covering water depths –130 to –11,087 ft (–40 to –3,379 m). The average error is calculated to be 1.3 percent of water depth.

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BP Trinidad & Tobago (bpTT) has announced that it has made two significant gas discoveries with the Savannah and Macadamia exploration wells, offshore Trinidad. The results of these wells have unlocked approximately 2 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in place to underpin new developments in these areas.

The Savannah exploration well was drilled into an untested fault block east of the Juniper field in water depths of over 500 feet, approximately 80 kilometres off the south-east coast of Trinidad. The well was drilled using a semi-submersible rig and penetrated hydrocarbon-bearing reservoirs in two main intervals with approximately 650 feet net pay. Based on the success of the Savannah well, bpTT expects to develop these reservoirs via future tieback to the Juniper platform that is due to come online mid-2017.

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Electromagnetic Geoservices ASA (EMGS) announces that the Company has entered into various agreements with oil companies involving data licensing (prefunding and late sales) related to 3D EM data in the Norwegian Sea and Barents Sea in Norway. The agreements represent revenues of USD 2.4 million.

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