What's new in exploration: Gulf of what? Mar del Norte ~1519? Gulf of North America?

WILLIAM (BILL) HEAD, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Possible Answer: Let’s look at who owns the most 3D seismic images of where, who owns the most production platforms, and how many miles of subsea pipelines are from what x, y to a market. Maybe you witnessed President Trump on January 20, 2025, when he proclaimed that the efforts to secure energy for future generations were back in priority. I was in Washington D.C. that day; I heard, “I believe.” Demand for exploration and exploitation started to boom before January, as evidenced by the introduction of litigation to stop it before Trump was sworn in! Well, here’s to booming worldwide exploration in the Gulf of Wherever! Probably to provoke the left, Trump created a National Energy Dominance Council to expedite oil and gas flow… can this get any better? Perhaps we should call the place the Gulf of Columbus, 1492, etc.? (Fig. 1)

Fig. 1. Christopher Columbus is known to have led four transatlantic voyages between 1492 and 1504, as shown here. Image: Getty

Gulf? Yes, ultra-deepwater prospects are near the international continental shelf arbitrary boundary between Mexico and the U.S. Have you ever tried to make an exploration license with Pemex? Millions have been wasted on that, including millions under the table. Experience tells me my opinion could be correct that there are lots of tables, top, down to the least influential workers. Trump’s approach is awesome! Negotiate who owns what out to the previously accepted economic zone between countries. Provoke a little, shock a lot, and attempt to get political interests back into parity. Perhaps we are witnessing the beginning of a complex negotiation between all GOM(A) production owners to improve, safely, all operations and open areas to new exploration, regardless of claims. Perhaps realism can be entered into U.S. law on marine mammal exclusions designed not to protect but to exclude oil and gas exploration while disrupting the Mexican fisheries trade (GATT). Just sayin’…Recall Trump's transformation of NAFTA into the USMCA, which is a new trade agreement. Maybe what is under the ocean floor is not the issue as much as what is in the ocean and what trade transacts across that water. If Mexico received a slap, Canada got a poke in the eye over the 51st state comment! No one said Trump was not a provocateur.

Offshore is a great place to work since the product produced can be delivered to any of thousands of ports across this tiny planet — even ports where dollars and politics collide. Yet, note that there have been recent discoveries in a place with generations of marine seismic activity, GOM(A) Ewing Banks. Emerging 3D4D seismic methods will make a difference, as shown in offshore Namibia, and the North Gulf Alliances (NGA) of Britain, Holland, Denmark (Greenland), and Norway. Did I miss anyone? Canada and Russia have verbal claims to the NGA and some paper, but no one expects much from them. The NGA equals the North Sea for NATO.

In news published by World Oil on Jan 27, French company GTGi had procured a contract to employ 30,000 STRYDE nodes across various European interests to minimize geophysical footprints for 2D and 3D seismic exploration activity. What does that really imply? First, exploration is not DOA even in Euro-Asian areas despite green wokeness. Also, Russian threats to stop the delivery of natural gas seem to be a motivator. Second, geophysical innovation did not die during the kill-fossil-fuels campaign rampant across globalist societies. More on various land and marine nodes later. My last bid for land work with nodes in a flat, open country was less efficient and not cheaper than traditional trucks and cables. Alas.

About the Authors

William (Bill) Head

Contributing Editor

William (Bill) Head is a technologist with over 40 years of experience in U.S. and international exploration.