Marine Technology Reporter Blogs - survey

With the imminent the start of the next phase of the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which is likely to get under way towards the end of September, it is interesting to take a look at the vessels and systems which will be participating, as it promises to be a very challenging search due to the harsh weather common to the area and a complex seafloor. Detailed information is being gathered on the topography of the ocean floor west of Australia, which confirms the seabed in some locations to be extremely rugged. This key survey, of a largely uncharted deepwater seafloor, will guide a millimetric search using towed side-scan sonars, magnetometers, sub-bottom profiler and AUVs. The Australian authorities have warned that the search could take a year to complete.

With the imminent the start of the next phase of the search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370, which is likely to get under way towards the end of September, it is interesting to take a look at the vessels and systems which will be participating, as it promises to be a very challenging search due to the harsh weather common to the area and a complex seafloor. Detailed information is being gathered on the topography of the ocean floor west of Australia, which confirms the seabed in some locations to be extremely rugged. This key survey, of a largely uncharted deepwater seafloor, will guide a millimetric search using towed side-scan sonars, magnetometers, sub-bottom profiler and AUVs. The Australian authorities have warned that the search could take a year to complete.

The C-Worker is an unmanned surface vehicle (USV) designed for offshore services in the O&G industry. The multi-role offshore USV is designed to conduct subsea positioning, surveying and environmental monitoring without the need of a ship on station or seabed anchoring. Autonomous Surface Vehicles Ltd (ASV Ltd) is a UK company and part of Global Fusion, a privately owned international marine services group based in Lafayette, Louisiana, USA. The small robust design incorporates an aluminum self-righting hull that makes the vehicle suitable for harsh ocean environments. At only 5.85 meters in length, a beam of 2.2 meters and a height of 4.75 meter with its mast extended, this USV is a much cheaper and compact option for some offshore jobs that today are done by much larger vessels.

As government agencies, research institutions, academia, and a range of industries look for new light-weight and low-cost solutions for subsea survey and inspection tasks, it becomes clear that new companies are entering the market with the goal of providing these specific services. At the same time the industry that manufactures the tools for these tasks, such as ROV’s, AUV’s and sensors and visualization software are also bringing in compact and affordable, yet powerful, products. Using the latest technology applied to inshore and offshore areas, these companies may soon be competing with established brands and in some case they offer services that few companies in the world can offer, creating their own niche.

The Catlin Seaview Survey is the first comprehensive study of the Great Barrier Reef to document the composition and health of the world’s coral reefs across an unparalleled depth range of 0-100m. The project includes a shallow and deep reef survey and began on the Great Barrier Reef in northeast Australia in 2012. The shallow reef survey involves photographing the reef in full 360 degree panoramic vision on an unprecedented scale using specially developed cameras. These images are analyzed automatically using image recognition software, specially designed by University of Queensland researchers, creating a baseline for scientific analysis from remote locations.

Rockhopper Exploration discovered up to 1.4 billion barrels boe in its Sea Lion prospect in the North Falkland Basin during the spring of 2011. In 2012 disappointment set in with many dry wells and only Borders & Southern Petroleum finding an estimated 190 million barrels of condensates in the South Falkland Basin. In 2013 exploration was basically halted while seimic surveys continued. There were two 3D seismic campaigns in the South Falkland Basin and the start of a third. 2013 also saw FOGL and Desire Petroleum plc merge, which has resulting in a larger company with a budget of $275 million for exploration. The major focus in 2014 will be on the Sea Lion discovery in the North Falkland Basin.

Airborne geophysical surveying is a process of measuring the variation in several key physical or geochemical parameters of the Earth. The most important parameters measured are conductivity, magnetic susceptibility, density, and radioactive element concentration. Any change in the Earth's near-surface that causes a measurable change in these parameters presents a potential application for airborne geophysics. Since 2000 CGG has been offering high-end airborne survey capability through the global merger of the leading airborne geophysical survey companies, which then joined the CGG group in 2013. CGG’s new time-domain electromagnetic solution maps shallow to deep geology in one pass.

AUVs had only been used for a limited number of tasks dictated by the technology available until newer technologies were developed. With the development of more advanced processing capabilities and high yield power supplies, AUVs are now being used in Brazil for some new tasks, although its primary function is still seismic studies and environment analysis.The players in the Brazilian O&G market use AUVs in conjunction with Survey ships to make detailed maps of the seafloor before they start building subsea infrastructure; pipelines and subsea completions can be installed in the most cost effective manner with minimum disruption to the environment.

MMT is a Swedish marine survey company offering turnkey services, including two remotely operated towed vehicles (ROTV) equipped with various survey equipment for complete geophysical surveys. MMT has now upgraded the systems to be fully equipped with side scan sonars and sub bottom profilers, in addition to multi-beam echo sounders, inertial navigation system and doppler velocity log. This means a complete geophysical survey can be done from this platform in a speed of 6 knots and down to a water depth of 400 meters. The advantage of the ROTV is that it is a powerful tool for accurate line keeping during a survey. The upgrades system enhances the control of the tow-fish and allows both a constant altitude above the seafloor as well as maintaining the planned survey lines.

Marine Magnetics Corp from Markham, Ontario has successfully tested an AUV-towed Magnetometer. According to Doug Hrvoic president and owner of Marine Magnetics Corp, a company specialized in researching, developing and manufacturing marine magnetometers, OceanServer’s Iver2 AUV model was chosen for its design. “The Iver2 was designed to enable the integration of various sensors by a third party, and without direct involvement of the Iver developers,” says Bob Anderson, president of OceanServer Technology. “From a hardware standpoint, one approach has been to tow a sensor in the water column behind the AUV, and to connect a tow cable/electrical interface cable to a rugged…

With the great demand for deepwater subsea equipment and services,  for deployment at the new pre-salt plays and other post-salt deepwater plays from Petrobras and other O&G operators in Brazil, various companies specializing in deepwater equipment and services are setting up or have already set up shop in Brazil. At this point there are very few totally national companies that have the capacity to offer deepwater E&P support services and basically there are no 100% national companies with the capacity to manufacture deepwater support equipment. That will undoubtedly change along the next decade but for now until the foreseeable future these equipments and services will be provided by foreign companies through their Brazilian subsidiaries.

C & C is known through the world as a technological leader in the survey field, they´ve been responsible for innovations such as C-Nav, Globally-corrected GPS and the C-Surveyor™ AUVs that have made groundbreaking advancements to the survey industry and subsequently have saved clients time and money worldwide.C & C Technologies do Brasil, a subsidiary of C & C Technologies, Inc. (C & C), the worldwide leader in deepwater autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) operations, was recently awarded a $50 million contract by Petrobras. The 730 day contract will utilize C & C’s state-of-the-art C-Surveyor II AUV and M/V Northern Resolution. The contract can be renewed for an additional 730 days, making the contract potentially worth $100 million.