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TGS has teamed up with Petroleum Geo-Services ASA and Newfoundland and Labrador’s Nalcor Energy over the past three years to map out about 47,000 square kilometres of seismic data and is set to chart another 30,000 square kilometers this year to create a wealth of information for prospective companies to assess the potential of crude oil and natural gas beneath the ocean.

“More two-dimensional seismic data will be gathered in 2014 than has ever been gathered before in a year all the way back to 1983,” said Jim Keating, vice-president of oil and gas with Nalcor Energy.

“1983 was our previous exploration peak — a year before the Terra Nova discovery — that goes back to our exploration heydays more than three decades ago,” Mr. Keating said.

As monopolistic national oil companies dominate some of the world’s largest reserves, oil majors are expected to inject over US$100-billion during the next decade in offshore exploration activity in benign jurisdictions.

“It seems that our frontier is going to be the next one examined in detail,” said Robert Cadigan, president and chief executive officer of Newfoundland and Labrador Oil & Gas Industries Association (NOIA). “As companies have declines in the North Sea, they are taking a second look at Newfoundland.”

To drum up interest, Crown corporation Nalcor has spent $14-million during the past three years and earmarked another $11.8-million this year to collect seismic data with partners TGS and PGS, who are funding the remaining 80% of the cost.