First Break - Volume 8, Issue 10, 1990

Up to the 1950s, the evolution of Western Europe's energy sector, in which coal production and use was preeminent, had been steady and relatively untraumatic. Subsequently it has been replaced by a period of highly dynamic and forceful developments in which long-established structures have been undermined, not only by changing internal circumstances but also by the impact of extern al forces.

The first three-dimensional (3D) seismic surveys for the oil industry were acquired in the mid 1970s and, in spite of the inherent high costs of the method, it rapidly gained acceptance and its use has increased dramatically over the years (see Jennings 1989).