on the Baltimore Canyon due to the execution of the August, 1976 lease sale 

 in that area. Few activities other than seismographic surveys have been 

 carried out in the South Atlantic area, whereas past exploration activities 

 in the Mid Atlantic OCS area have included COST wells. Such action is commonly 

 carried out by private contractors who may work for one or several oil com- 

 panies at a time, or who may undertake the surveys of likely oil-bearing 

 structures themselves and sell the resultant data to any interested parties. 

 This type of activity requires no new shore-based facilities. Seismic 

 vessels operate out of existing ports and may conduct tests anywhere in the 

 world. 



The manner of geophysical exploration is described as follows: 



Geophysical surveying uses small shock waves set off near the 

 water surface and sensitive recording devices towed behind small 

 vessels to determine the density of sediments lying thousands of 

 feet beneath the ocean bottom. Geophysicists interpret the re- 

 sults of these surveys to predict where oil and gas deposits 

 are likely to be found. (13, p. 15). (Figure 4). 



More recent exploration activities have consisted of the drilling of 

 a COST (Continental Offshore Stratigraphic Test) well in the Baltimore 

 Canyon. This well which was started in December, 1975 and lies 73.6 miles 

 off the New Jersey coast is the first step of a major program to collect 

 actual subsurface information in offshore frontier areas (6, p. 20). Explor- 

 atory wells are drilled, in this case, by semi-submersible drilling rigs 

 which operate out of home ports (especially from the Gulf) and are used 

 world-wide whenever needed. Little onshore support other than supplies, some 

 personnel quarters (usually motels), fuel and food are needed. 



These deep test wells are part of a comprehensive program to find out 

 what type of potential reservoir and source rock lies in sedimentary basins 



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