Research vessel BGP Pioneer, sailing under the flag of Panama, is to commence seismic data acquisition for exploring Sri Lanka’s prospects for petroleum resources in selected offshore areas of the island. The seismic survey will comprise 5,000 line kms of data in the JS5 and JS6 exploration blocks in the Lanka Basin. 

The Petroleum Resources Development Ministry (PRDS) signed an agreement in May with Eastern Echo DMCC, a subsidiary of Schlumberger, to explore oil and gas resources. The PRDS identified three basins, which are Mannar, Kaveri and Lanka. These basins are divided as follows: Mannar basin from M-01 to M-10, Kaveri basin from C-1 to C-5, Lanka basin from JS-1 to JS-6. ‘BGP Pioneer’ is set to commence operations in the Lanka basin.

The company will collect, market and license petroleum data on 'multi-client' basis, enabling several data acquisition projects, including 2D and 3D seismic data.

This agreement acts as an umbrella for the execution of several multi-client based service agreements to carry out seismic data acquisition surveys, advanced data processing, interpretation work or modeling of petroleum systems.

Eastern Echo DMCC expects to invest 50 million dollars for the exploration under this agreement and they will recover it from sales proceeds to multiple investors.

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