Pepper-1 was one of numerous wells drilled by Wapet in the late...

Pepper-1 was one of numerous wells drilled by Wapet in the late '60s and early '70s where they drilled on minor islands across the shallow-water shelf on the principle that the islands are the expression of a structural high in the underlying strata, and would therefore be capable of trapping hydrocarbons. It was a reasonably successful strategy, resulting in quite a few discoveries. The problem until recently in further exploring and extrapolating away from these wells has been the difficulty, risk and expense of acquiring seismic data in shallow water ... difficult in 30m, very difficult in 20m and nigh on impossible in 10m because standard marine acquisition involves a reasonably large ship, towing sources and cables behind it.. (.. often these days with larger 3D vessels towing gear at depths of 50m or more) ..The inner shelf is covered by only very sparse low quality 2D data acquired in the 60s to 80s when vessels and towed configurations tended to be smaller, 2D and were thus more capable of venturing into shallow(ish) water.

Special equipment is required for shallow water.. and progressively over the past 5 to 10 years this has become available with ongoing improvements in electronics and battery technology... enables battery powered receiver/recorder modules (with incredibly accurate clocks) ....that are small and manageable enough to be deployed and retrieved from small workboats... to sit on the seabed recording for weeks until subsequent retrieval.