06 Mar Geotek Limited awarded a multi-instrument contract for state-of the art core scanning facility at BGS Core Store
Geotek Limited have been awarded a multi-instrument contract for two Multi-Sensor Core Loggers (MSCLs) and a Rotating X-ray CT (RXCT) machine for the British Geological Survey (BGS). Geotek’s core scanning equipment will form the foundation of a new, state-of the art core scanning facility at BGS Core Store at Keyworth, Nottingham, which is part of the UK’s National Geological Repository (NGR), and will be open to BGS scientists, academics and commercial companies.
The National Geological Repository at the British Geological Survey (BGS) Core Store, Keyworth, UK
The MSCLs and RXCT will initially be used to acquire high resolution continuous downcore and X-ray CT datasets from core samples acquired from the UK Geoenergy Observatories project. These data will be used to underpin the many research projects emanating from, and relying on the core samples acquired from the UK Geoenergy Observatories. More information on the UK Geoenergy Observatories project can be found here.
The NGR stores one of the most valuable data assets of the UK, archiving over 600 km of drillcore, plus several million individual core and cuttings samples from over 8,000 offshore hydrocarbon wells and 15,000 onshore wells and boreholes. This extensive library of UK’s subsurface coupled with core from the latest UK Geoenergy Observatories project has an estimated replacement cost of £175 billion and has been slowly accumulated since the core store was first opened in 1985. The ability for MSCL and X-ray CT technology to extract data from archived core in a non-destructive manner allows the NGR to re-assess the wealth of material at its finger-tips. As well, it can increase the value of the archived core material to both UK science, and the energy and mineral extraction industries who have all placed core under the auspices of the NGR.
The BGS view “automated core scanning as an essential technique [core analysis], minimising the need for destructive sampling, whilst providing much higher resolution data. [These] data will highlight variations in the core that might not otherwise be discernible, enabling the more productive targeting of the limited destructive subsampling possible.” Geotek are extremely pleased that our MSCL and X-ray CT technology will play a significant role in the infrastructure plan for UK science both now and in the future.
The new core scanning at the facility will be open for business in Summer 2018.
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