Print date: Monday, 20. May, 1.25
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Printer friendly version of the page: "Annual Report 2003 - Geology for society" Print date: Monday, 20. May, 1.25 |
Publisher and copyright GEUS, 2004, Author/editor: Henrik Højmark Thomsen - ISBN: 87-7871-113-4; ISSN: 1396-3317c Download entire report geus03-uk.pdf (pdf-file, ~800 kb)
Foreword Towards the end of 2003, the board of directors entered into a new performance contract with the Ministry of the Environment for the four-year period 2004-2007. The performance contract has its starting point in new strategies for the coming years which are prepared following thorough discussions amongst staff, managers at all levels, management and the board of directors and after consultation with cooperation partners. The financial framework that has been indicated for the coming finance acts is falling, but GEUS will try to cover the reductions in appropriations with extra external income from research councils, funds, the EU, public authorities and industry. In Denmark, the areas of highest priority for the new strategies are research and consultancy with regard to securing clean drinking water in future and the oil and gas resources in the North Sea. On the other hand, it has been necessary to give lower priority to several topics within the programme area "Nature and the environment". The tasks in Greenland maintain their relative share of GEUS' basic appropriation and are given priority after consultation with the Greenland Home Rule. In 2003, GEUS made a new calculation of Denmark's drinking water resources, and the work on the development of a method for mapping of areas with sandy soil which are particularly sensitive to leaching of pesticides to groundwater is about to be concluded. Continued utilisation of hydrocarbon resources in the North Sea was on the political agenda in 2003. With its research, GEUS has contributed to the understanding of the processes leading to oil formation in limestone fields and has received international acknowledgment for this. With regard to Greenland, GEUS has, in cooperation with the Home Rule Government, made special efforts with regard to the international oil industry by marketing the hydrocarbon potential offshore West Greenland. A new licensing round is planned for 2004. In addition, GEUS has conducted the first year's collection of seismic data north of the Faeroe Islands and south of Greenland in the continental shelf project with a view to possibly asserting claims on areas beyond 200 nautical miles. In the field of minerals, GEUS has also been actively contributing to develop mineral resource utilisation into a major industry in Greenland. In 2003, efforts were concentrated on geological mapping in West Greenland, compilation of relevant regional data for the promotion of exploration by companies, and documentation of geological processes that may lead to the formation of deposits of diamonds and gold. A successful signal to the international mining industry was the opening of a new gold mine in South Greenland in the end of 2003. In the climate area, GEUS completed a large international research project which documents that geological potential exists in Denmark's subsurface for storage of large amounts of CO2 if such a solution to the limitation of emissions of this greenhouse gas into the atmosphere should become part of the political agenda. On behalf of Greenland, GEUS prepared an application to UNESCO for the nomination of Jakobshavn Isbræ as a world heritage site. In Denmark, GEUS carried out geological mapping in Western Jutland with special focus on drinking water interests. In the area of international assistance, GEUS has extended its work to several new countries. On behalf of the World Bank, GEUS assessed the chances for development of mining operations in the Lao People's Democratic Republic (the Lao PDR) and Kyrgyzstan. The cooperation with Vietnam has been continued and intensified, particularly with regard to the opportunities for the Vietnamese to explore for and exploit Vietnam's oil and gas reserves. In Ghana, GEUS completed its two-year consultancy project for the Nordic Development Fund with regard to organisation of Ghana's national geological survey.
Despite another round of redundancies in 2003, the staff at GEUS has managed to complete a number of important research and consultancy projects in Denmark and abroad and to meet almost all its objectives and performance indicators with a positive financial bottom line.
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