Hydrocarbon Exploration

This provision follows last year's announcement by Congress to end a quarter century old ban that prevented energy development along 85% of the nation's Outer Continental Shelf extending from New England to the Pacific Northwest.

This latest provision follows the Draft Proposed Outer Continental Shelf

(OCS) Oil and Gas leasing programme (2010-2015) published by the US Department of the Interior Minerals Management Service (MMS) in January 2009.  This draft programme proposed a number of options for lease sales in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico in 2010, 2011 and 2013 respectively.

Spectrum has acquired and processed (some in partnership with TGS) 38,000km of modern seismic data in the eastern Gulf of Mexico which allows oil companies to evaluate the prospectivity of this region ahead of the proposed lease sales. The data was acquired in two phases between 2006 and 2008 as part of Spectrum's "Big Wave" seismic programme.  Spectrum will soon re-commence acquisition in the next phase of Big Wave which is a further 12,000km of high quality, long offset seismic data. The acquisition of Big Wave Phase 2 will commence in July and is scheduled for completion in November. The survey has received excellent support and sponsorship from a number of major oil companies.

An analysis of Big Wave Phase 1 data along and outboard the Florida Escarpment, has revealed a number of possible hydrocarbon accumulations both on the platform area and in the deeper waters.  The data was processed at Spectrum's Houston regional data processing and imaging centre with a sequence which includes both Kirchhoff and Wave Equation pre stack depth migration (PSDM).  This technique, together with display of the data in the depth domain gives geoscientists an excellent understanding of the geology in the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

The recent announcements are a positive step forward in allowing oil companies to fully explore the highly prospective Eastern Gulf of Mexico.