As part of the NSTA’s published 2018/19 Activity Plan, the NSTA is publishing a set of regional geological maps for the SW Approaches area. These maps represent the fourth set of deliverables from a 3 year contract with Lloyd’s Register (LR) to produce a series of maps and associated databases for the whole of the UKCS. Previous sets of maps have been delivered for the Central North Sea and Moray Firth (July 2017), the Southern North Sea (November 2017) and the Northern North Sea and East Shetland Platform (July 2018).
All data released with this set of geological maps is public domain data. The project has, however, benefited from a number of additional third party data sources which have been used to help inform final maps and/or derive interpreted products. These include the BGS’s 21CXRM Phase 1 project on the source rock potential of the SW Approaches area, Getech’s 21CXRM Phase 1 study on the structural configuration of the area, CGG’s Target database and relevant products available via the BGS’s Offshore Geoindex. TGS are gratefully acknowledged for providing joined digital log data from LogLinePlus to enable the production of lithology curves.
Due to the high level, regional nature of the project, the maps are being produced for the main geological time intervals e.g. Paleocene, Lower Cretaceous, Upper Jurassic. Each time interval includes the following products:
• Depth structure maps
• Isochore maps
• Subcrop& supercrop maps
• Structural elements maps
• Depositional facies maps
• Reservoir distribution maps
• Source rock maps
• Well penetration maps
• Hydrocarbon occurrence maps
This delivery represents an interim product which is being made available now in support of the 31st Frontier Licensing Round. A completed set of maps and databases will be re-delivered by the end of August 2018 and will incorporate the results from the NSTA-funded Frontier Basins Research project which has been recently completed for the SW Approaches area by a research consortium led by Durham University.