A US engineering company is to receive almost £300,000 funding to conduct seismic surveys of the North Sea. Scottish Enterprise will oversee the funding, which it believes will create three new jobs and preserve nine more at Concept Systems – an Edinburgh-based subsidiary of ION Geophysical, which won the contract.

The deal was announced by Economy Secretary Keith Brown, at the end of his week-long visit to North America. He said: “Innovation remains crucial to the oil and gas sector for maximising economic recovery and reducing costs, ultimately securing the long-term sustainability of the North Sea. Scotland’s offshore oil and gas industry has a bright future, with up to 20 billion barrels of oil equivalent remaining under the North Sea and in the wider basin.”

Reflection seismology is the field of exploration geophysics that uses the principles of seismology to estimate the properties of the Earth below the surface. Seismic surveys are used by oil and gas companies to reveal the location and size of potential oil and gas reservoirs. One of the largest and most recently discovered reservoirs off the coast is Lancaster Field, which is estimated to yield 523 million barrels of oil in total.

MSP Brown said: “ION are a leading innovator in geoscience and engineering. Given Scotland’s long tradition of excellence in the oil and gas industry, it would seem a natural partnership. The fact that ION have chosen to base their project here shows that through partnership working we can effect business decisions and demonstrate that Scotland is open for business.”