The Regional Seismic Survey Project is a 16,800 km regional seismic acquisition programme undertaken during the course of 2013-2014 over Ireland's major Atlantic basins. The Project was designed and initiated by my Department and jointly undertaken by my Department and Eni Ireland. Conscious that the existence of quality data is key to encouraging exploration the Project was designed to complement existing datasets and to fill data gaps.
The datasets acquired as a result of the Project vest with my Department. The datasets are of significant interest to exploration companies and researchers and helped inform applications under the 2015 Atlantic Margin Licensing Round. The Project has acted as a catalyst for further seismic acquisition by seismic contractors in recent years.
The cost of the Project was met by a contribution of €3.99 million made from the Petroleum Infrastructure Programme - Expanded Offshore Support Group (PIP-EOSG) managed by the Department and from Eni Ireland’s own resources. PIP-EOSG is funded by way of annual contributions from companies participating in Frontier Exploration Licences.