Getech issues further licence for untapped Arctic Shelf

Leeds-based Getech, which sells complex geological and geophysical data to oil companies, said the licence will come from its library of global gravity and magnetic data.

Getech said the Russian Arctic Shelf is a major area that has been under-explored.

The area is still in the early stages of exploration for oil and gas as a result of its harsh climate conditions and high exploration and production costs.

Getech’s chief executive Raymond Wolfson, said: “We are very pleased with this third licence from our Russian Arctic Shelf magnetic dataset.

“In recent years there has been an increase in the number of international oil companies establishing strategic links with Russian companies, which suggests there will be a continuing and active interest in exploration in Russ- ia.”

The licence comes just one day after Getech issued two licences for its data worth a total value of £400,000.

The two licences are for its global continental margins gravity and magnetic datasets.

The global continental margin datasets are a part of a library of gravity and magnetic data that Getech has built up over the past 25 years.

This data is used by oil, gas and mining companies to help their exploration programmes.

“We are seeing an increased emphasis by our clients on global exploration,” said Mr Wolfson.

“Our approach has for some time been to develop exploration data and studies at global and regional scales.”

The group is seeing increasing interest in its Global Programmes interpretative data project.

The project, which will take three years to complete, will explain how the geology and geography of an oil basin changes.

Getech traces its roots back to the University of Leeds’ Department of Earth Sciences, now part of the School of Earth and Environment, when founder Derek Fairhead collected gravity data for Africa in 1986.

The data was computerised to complete Getech’s first study.

Getech reported a 22 per cent rise in pre-tax profits to £358,000 in the six months to January 31.