Fugro wins largest ever AUV survey

The largest autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) survey so far conducted in the offshore oil and gas industry is a core element of two contracts awarded to Fugro in recent weeks. The contracts also include metocean measurements and geohazard consultancy services for ENI East Africa.

The data is being acquired for the Area 4 Rovuma basin development offshore northern Mozambique. The challenging AUV survey is the largest ever commissioned and one of the first in this new and remote frontier area off the coast of East Africa.

Covering approximately 1,440km², the survey area stretches from the nearshore to water depths greater than 2,700m. The data will aid the design of subsea facilities.

The work is being carried out using one of Fugro’s newest survey vessels, Fugro Equator, which is equipped with hull-mounted multibeam echo sounder, sub-bottom profiler, piston gravity corer and piezocone penetration system, in addition to the Echo Surveyor III AUV. Meteorological and oceanographic data will be collected using mooring buoys located in water depths ranging from 20m to 1,800m.

To assist in the routing of the 60km export pipeline, Fugro recently completed a regional and local geohazard assessment including data processing and reporting, from its offices in Europe and in Asia.OSJ