MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Report on interview of Dr Colin Phipps.
Dr Colin Phipps of Desire Petroleum explained to FIBS that although the recent seismic survey conducted by Desire Petroleum was what is known as ?3 dimensional', this was not strictly the case.
However in this type of survey the lines of survey were 10m apart as opposed to 1km apart in 2 dimensional seismic surveys. This gave an effect, which was virtually 3D.
This increased density of surveying of course meant one hundred times the amount of processing of the date. Dr Phipps explained that processing was necessary to remove from the findings any extraneous factors such as the effect of waves or any electro-magnetic influences from the ship itself. The result of such processing would be a clean and "near as true" picture of the seabed.
Next step after processing was the interpretation of the results of the seismic survey, which would give the closest possible indication of where precisely drilling should be done. This, Dr Phipps estimated, would take a further two to three months.
In answer to Sue Gyford's question as to when drilling might begin, Dr.Phipps said that he hoped it might be as early as the beginning of next year, though this would depend on rig availability amongst other things. Hiring a drilling rig was, he said, a hugely expensive process and it could also be very time-consuming, unless there happened to be a rig available relatively close to the Falklands, for example in Brazil.
Source: FIBS by Sue Gyford
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