Abstract The oil and gas industry has been active in the West of Shetlands area for the last 40 years, but less than 200 wells have been drilled and only four fields have been developed. In the last ten years activity has picked up significantly with very active licensing rounds and increased drilling; however, the challenges of the complex geology and deep-water location, environmental constraints and commercial considerations have also increased at the same time. To fully develop the region successfully an attitude of compromise and collaboration between all the stakeholders must be nurtured, but with the scale of investment required this will remain a challenge for the future.

Abstract The broad, shallow banks and intervening deep water (800-4000 m) channels of the Bahama Platform are unlike any other topography on the larger Atlantic margin (Fig. 1). The Bahama Platform covers roughly an area of 470,000 km2, which is nearly equivalent to the area of the exposed Atlantic coastal plain from Cape Hatteras to Florida. The Bahama Platform is divided into a northwest part and a southeast part by a northeast trending line between Rum Cay bank and Oriente, Cuba (Fig. 1). The northwest part of the Platform is characterized by a larger portion of the area being shallow banks and a lesser portion being deep-water channels and basins with water depths of 800-4000 m. In contrast, the southeast portion of the Platform has a greater portion of the area as deep water channels surrounding smaller isolated banks; the depths of the channels are generally deeper than 2000 m. (Uchupi and others, 1971). The deep channels and basins segmenting the Bahama Platform are of three different types: 1. open seaways with openings to deeper water at both ends; 2. closed seaways of linear proportions but open to deeper water only at one end; and 3. circular and semi-circular basins. Examples of open seaways are the Florida Straits, the Santaren/Nicholas Channels, the Northwest Providence Channel, the Northeast Providence Channel, and the Old Bahama Channel; Tongue of the Ocean (TOTO) and Exuma Sound are closed seaways; and Columbus Basin and Caicos Basin are semi-circular types.