Releasing deep sea minerals data
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate has made available large parts of the data gathered through deep sea minerals explorations conducted over the past years. Join our UTC Marine Minerals seminar 14 June to learn more about these data.
Over the past decade the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) has taken part in research cruises conducted by the University of Bergen, and since 2018 NPD have performed their own targeted exploration campaigns in the deep sea.
Read more about the four NPD lead cruises.
Pioneering work
This pioneering work constitutes one of the world's largest datasets related to deep sea minerals exploration.
– The results from this work is also a recognition to the world-class Norwegian offshore technology and competence, said Torgeir Stordal, Director of Technology, Analysis and Coexistence at the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, at the data release seminar 2 June in Stavanger.
In 2019, five AUV's were used where three were in the water simultaneously. The mapping efficiency has steadily increased, and a total of 6818 line-kilometres have been acquired.
In 2020 a unique coil tubing operation was performed to acquire core samples. These cores and different samples taken by ROV are stored in the NPD Geobank.
Fumbling in the dark
Rolf Birger Pedersen Professor at the University of Bergen (UiB) and director at the Centre for Deep Sea Research talked about the first research cruises, where they started out more or less without any map or information about the deep sea.
Pedersen has been pioneering deep sea research in Norway for the last decades and has headed the research cruises discovering most of the deep sea minerals deposits in Norway.
The initial discoveries were made by measuring chemical and acoustics anomalies in the water column from active vents. Later a combination of more advanced measurement technologies have made detection of inactive sites possible.
Solveig Lien Onstad, PhD-candidate at UiB, talked about how self-potential measurements from an AUV were key to discovering the extinct site Gnitahei. It is the extinct sites that are of industrial interest with respect to minerals, while active sites are interesting both from a scientific perspective as well as for bioprospecting.
Join UTC to learn more
Sissel Eriksen, Senior Adviser in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate will present at the UTC Marine Minerals seminar 14 June.
She will give us the latest status on the deep sea minerals exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf, including an overview of the 2,5TB og data being released and how you can access these. Eriksen will also touch upon technologies that NPD regards as being of interest to improve minerals resource potential estimates.
Amund Vik, State Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy will give the opening speach covering the status on the legal framework and the ongoing impact assessment.
Furthermore, international leading experts will address the global minerals marked, possibilities for the Norwegian industry and environmental challenges and dilemmas facing us in the energy transition.
Contact Information
UTC Marine Minerals
The UTC Marine Mineral seminar will be arranged as part of the UTC Day 0 programme 14 June from 9:30-14:00.
Sissel Eriksen, Senior Adviser in the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate will give an overview of the released data, status on the deep sea minerals exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf, as well as technology of interest to improve resource potential estimates.
Please note that you need to purchase a separated ticket for the UTC Marine Minerals Seminar, as this is not included in the UTC 2022 Delegate Fee.
