Acquisition and processing of 120 Magnetotelluric sites near Antrim town, Northern Ireland for Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies

Tender description

The Dublin Institute of advanced Studies proposes to award a contract for the acquisition of approximately 120 magnetotelluric (MT) soundings near Antrim town in Northern Ireland. The successful tenderer will assist DIAS in geophysical (Magnetotelluric, MT) data acquisition, including site scouting, MT data processing and reporting. A full detail of expected protocols and deliverables are set out in section 2.5 below. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), within the framework of GEMINI project, is seeking a Contractor to: • acquire, • quality control • process, approximately 120 wideband MT soundings in the County Antrim jurisdiction of Northern Ireland (UK). GEMINI is a new, multi-partner, all-island geothermal energy demonstration project. The project is supported by the PEACEPLUS programme managed by the Special EU Programmes Body (SEUPB) and endorsed by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Ireland and the Department for the Economy, Northern Ireland. Over the next four years the GEMINI project will help reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with heat production, a goal central to EU, UK and Irish strategies to meet 2050 emissions targets. The objective of this MT survey is to improve geothermal resource understanding in County Antrim. The target reservoir is Sherwood Sandstone Group, which is a highly productive and regionally important aquifer in Northern Ireland. The exact locations of the MT sites are not yet finalised as it is expected a percentage of the total number will be coincident with other geophysical methods (e.g. gravity, active and passive seismic methods) within GEMINI. It is estimated that one MT site per km2 is expected, however this distribution is flexible to account for anthropogenic infrastructure, scouting/permitting, etc. It is estimated that 40 percent of site scouting and permitting will be accomplished prior to the survey by DIAS and Geological Survey of Northern Ireland (GSNI). The Contractor is required to finalise the outstanding scouting and permitting with the advice from DIAS/GSNI. This must be included in the Contractor’s Financial budget. DIAS will be simultaneously acquiring wideband data in County Cork to achieve a “far remote” which has been proven to yield optimal MT transfer functions. It is expected that the Contractor will also locate and service a remote in the north of the island of Ireland. DIAS requires high-quality MT soundings from 10,000 Hz to 0.001 Hz for each site. All responses must be submitted in a ZIP File format.