Fugro Completes GoM Surveys for Shell

Fugro said it has completed several deepwater geophysical surveys in the Gulf of Mexico for Shell.

The project required data collection over multiple deepwater lease blocks in the greater Perdido and Mars development areas to support clearance of potential environmental, engineering, geological and archaeological hazards ahead of planned drilling activities, the Dutch-based geo-data company said.

As the preferred contractor for this project, Fugro deployed a Hugin autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) from its purpose-built survey vessel, the Fugro Brasilis. The Hugin AUV is depth-rated to 3,000 meters and equipped with multibeam echosounder, side scan sonar and sub-bottom profiling sensors. Fugro also used a mix of onboard and in-house processing resources to meet an accelerated interpretation and reporting schedule.

The work began in July and finished in early October, and the completed project totals over 8,500 kilometers of survey data.

“Shell’s 2019 AUV survey campaign onboard the Fugro Brasilis is another example of collaboration between Fugro and Shell to bring innovative technology and techniques to site investigations in ways that reduce HSSE exposure and survey duration, while simultaneously providing superior data quality and ancillary datasets,” said Shell Project Manager, Deanne Hargrave.

Fugro noted it has acquired more than 172,000 kilometers of AUV data in the Americas region since the early 2000s.