Licence to explore for GETECH

YORKSHIRE-BASED GETECH, which specialises in mapping areas targeted for oil exploration by industry giants such as Shell, BP and ExxonMobil, has signed “significant” new licences for its data as oil companies show signs of increasing their investment in exploration.

The company, which was the first Leeds University spin-out firm to float on the Alternative Investment Market and has the world’s largest commercial library of gravity and magnetic exploration data, said the licences will generate income of more than £500,000.

The Leeds firm said that some of the income will fall within its current financial year, which ends on July 31, with the rest included in its next financial year.

“The increased demand for such data sets demonstrates their importance in exploration as the oil industry evaluates more and more hydrocarbon opportunities in mature and frontier areas,” it said in a statement.

It’s shares closed up 0.5p at 30.75p last night.

The clients for GETECH’s studies represent a range of mid-size to major oil companies based throughout the world including Japan, Europe and the USA.

GETECH is building a gravity and magnetic database and has recently signed a new agreement with the Cambodian National Petroleum Authority to market its onshore data covering the Tonle Sap Basin.

The group is also due to undertake new gravity surveys in Brazil and Chile and to complete a regional gravity survey of Paraguay which it said will be available to be sold to clients next year.

Professor Derek Fairhead, executive chairman of GETECH, said: “The growth of and demand for the exploration gravity and magnetic data sets is most encouraging and possibly reflects a change in oil company strategy to spend more of their income on exploration. We look forward to this trend continuing .”