METROL partners include the company Statoil ASA, Stavanger, Norway, which has extensive oil and gas activities in the North Sea and which has already invested great efforts to map and investigate methane seeps and carbonate structures. Statoil is an international private oil company operating large oil and gas fields in the North Sea and Norwegian Sea. The company has a wide range of specialist expertise based on its exploration and production activities, including geophysical mapping and modern sub-seafloor imaging and visualization. Valuable data on the occurrences of deep and shallow gas, on methane seeps and on methane-derived carbonate platforms and biotic communities exist as a basis for the choice of target sites.

METROL will provide new know-how to improve the interpretation of seep occurrences and the processes taking place in the underlying sea floor. It is the goal to integrate the data base of METROL with other available data bases on seafloor methane. The knowledge transfer will thus take place through the direct cooperation with STATOIL and through active workshop participation of other oil companies.

The company Statoil ASA, Stavanger, Norway, will cooperate in the field research under WP1 and WP2 in the North Sea. Statoil will provide important logistic support by access to its ship and ROV for sampling and observation of methane seep systems. STATOIL will be directly involved in project management and research, and the study sites in the North Sea will be chosen according to STATOIL information.

contact:

Dr. Hans Kristian Kotlar hkko@statoil.com