In the 2015 and 2016 budget announcement, the NSTA received £20 million of funding from HM Treasury to support the acquisition and processing of new 2D seismic data in some of the underexplored areas of the UKCS. 

In 2015, we acquired almost 20,000 line kilometres of new high-quality 2D seismic data from the underexplored Rockall Trough and Mid-North Sea High areas of the UKCS.  In March 2016, having completed an intensive processing programme using the latest processing technologies, we released almost 40,000 line kilometres of new and legacy seismic data, making the key datasets available for free download from the National Data Repository.

Our 2016 seismic programme collected approximately 10,000 and 15,000 line kilometres of new seismic data from the under-explored frontier areas of South West Britain and the East Shetland Platform respectively. The acquisition began in July and was completed in October 2016 with the final data being released to industry in 2017. Seismic surveys were undertaken across the East Shetland Platform which includes the East Orkney Basin, East Fair Isle Basin and Dutch Bank Basin, and around South West Britain, including; the Celtic Sea, Western English Channel, Bristol Channel, St George’s Channel and the Irish Sea. 

Our 2016 seismic programme collected approximately 10,000 and 15,000 line kilometres of new seismic data from the under-explored frontier areas of South West Britain and the East Shetland Platform respectively. The acquisition began in July and was completed in October 2016 with the final data being released to industry in 2017. Seismic surveys were undertaken across the East Shetland Platform which includes the East Orkney Basin, East Fair Isle Basin and Dutch Bank Basin, and around South West Britain, including; the Celtic Sea, Western English Channel, Bristol Channel, St George’s Channel and the Irish Sea. All products relating to the 2016 seismic programme are available for download via the National Data Repository.