HYDROFEST 2015

AnOverviewofSeabedSurveys
(HighresolutionGeophysicalSite
Surveys)

AnnaFulop
ChiefGeoscientist
FugroSurveyLimited

22April2015

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Agenda
Introduction
Site survey - purpose and requirements
Principles, Methods and Tools
AUV Surveys
Site Survey Operations
Interpretation and Presentation

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Introduction - The Fugro Group

Dutch multinational company; headquarter in Leidschendam, NL.
Fugro provides People, Equipment, Expertise and Technology worldwide;
Approximately 12,000 employees in over 60 countries.
Activities: acquire and interpret Earths surface and sub-surface data to
support the design, construction, installation, repair and maintenance of
infrastructure, on land and at sea.
3 Divisions (Geotechnical, Survey and Subsea Services) each containing
numerous individual Operating Companies (OpCos).
Survey division: Oil&Gasindustry,Renewables,Mining,etc

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Introduction
Fugro Survey Division
Meteorology and oceanography,
Weather forecasting
Offshore structural monitoring
Marine environmental services
Geophysical Survey, cable route
and hydrographic survey
Construction survey support
Satellite positioning, monitoring and
mapping
Aerial mapping, Terrestrial
surveying
Geospacial GIS solutions
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Fugro Survey Limited
High-resolution marine geophysical
site surveys (Oil & Gas industry) -
seabed mapping, drilling hazard surveys,
regional and deep-water surveys,
pipeline route surveys
Offshore positioning services and
construction support - rig moves, pipelay
operations, etc
Main office in Aberdeen
Operate worldwide, but predominantly in
NW European Continental Shelf (UKCS,
NOCS, Dutch and Danish sectors),
offshore West Africa
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Site surveys - purpose and requirements

A survey is required for anything that
is moved from one place to another (e.g. rig
move, site clearance/abandonment)
is laid on the seabed (e.g. pipeline, power/
telecommunication cable)
has foundations in the seabed (e.g.
platforms, buried pipelines, wellheads,
manifolds, anchors, offshore wind turbines)
might affect environmentally
sensitive areas
may be affected by geohazards
or offshore or fishing activity

goes on or in the seabed

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Site surveys - purpose and requirements

A survey will determine:
Seabed conditions
- Bathymetry:waterdepth,gradients,relief
- Seabedsedimenttypes(clay,sand,gravel,bedrock)
- Seabedobstructions(existinginfrastructure,wrecks,debris,boulders,
UXO)
- Potentiallysensitivehabitats(e.g.coral,herringspawninggrounds,
MDAC)
Sub-seabed conditions
- geology
- foundation/anchoringconditions
- trenchingconditions
Potential Geohazards
- Slopestability
- Faulting
- Probabilityofshallowgas

Are these conditions suitable and safe?

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Seabed Conditions - Bathymetry

Iceberg ploughmarks, northern North Sea

Megaripples and spud can

depressions, southern North Sea
Pockmark, central North Sea

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Seabed Sediments and Features

Sand with rock outcrop

Pipelines with associated infrastructure; soft clay with numerous pockmarks

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Seabed Sediments and Features

Unexploded Ordnance (UXO)

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Seabed Sediments and Features

Abandoned telecom cable near proposed

drilling location (not mapped)

Debris (cable / wire)

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Environmentally Sensitive Habitats (DECC requirements in the North Sea)

Seabed photograph of Coral colonies

Area of possible Coral on SSS data

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Sub-seabed Conditions

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Geohazard Identification Seabed Stability

Evidence of slope
instability

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Geohazard Identification - Faulting

500m

Evidence of faulting on 2DHR seismic data

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Geohazard Identification Potential Shallow Gas

500m

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What are the risks of not doing a site survey?

West Vanguard Blowout,

NOCS (1986)

Punch-through

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Principles, Methods and Tools

Basic Principles
Use of geophysical remote sensing techniques
Predominantly use acoustic methods
- Rangeofequipmentandmethods
- Rangeofacousticfrequencies

Calibrated by some limited ground truth sampling

- Geotechnical
- Environmental

Platform: dedicated survey vessels vs vessels of opportunity

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Echo Sounders
Single and multibeam systems, generally hull-mounted
Water depths measurements
Topography

SINGLE
BEAM

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Side Scan Sonars

High, low, dual frequency towed systems
Measure seabed reflectivity
Detection / identification of seabed sediment and obstructions
Measurement of dimensions (particularly height above
seabed)

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Side Scan Sonar Data seabed sediments

Rippled
Fine SAND Boulders/
SAND Clay outcrops
Fine
SAND

Rippled
SAND

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Side Scan Sonar Data detailed mapping of seabed obstructions

Anchor scar
with pit

Small
depression

Surface-laid pipeline

Uncharted WRECK
L=33m, W=6m, H=3.3m Acoustic
shadow

Area of
debris

Seabed

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High-resolution Seismic Systems

Used for sub-seabed mapping
Seismic reflection
Single-channel systems:
- Pingers (generally hull-mounted)
- Chirps (towed / hull-mounted)
- Boomers / Sparkers (towed)
- Single airguns (mini gun and single channel streamer)

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High-resolution Seismic Systems (contd)

2D high-resolution multichannel seismic
- typically 140 cu.in. sleeve airgun source fired at 6.25m /
12.5m intervals
- 48 / 96 channels, 600m / 1200m hydrophone streamer
- Digital recording system
- Extensive data processing required
- Deeper penetration and increased signal / noise ratio

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Summary of Acoustic Methods

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Other Tools and Survey Methods

Complement the acoustic geophysical
survey data
Magnetometer, Gradiometers
Geotechnical testing/sampling
- Grab sampler
- Gravity / Piston Corer
- Vibrocorer
- Cone Penetrometer Testing (CPT)
- Deep boreholes (>30m bsb)

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Other Tools and Survey Methods (contd)

Environmental Surveys
- Underwater camera: sills and video transects
- Box coring

Have become standard part of most seabed surveys

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AUV Surveys Deep Water Solution

Traditional survey methods have numerous drawbacks to the acquisition of
geophysical data in deep water areas:
- Deployment / recovery difficult in bad weather conditions
- Noise / weather effects, vessel motion
- Limited penetration and data resolution (hull-mounted systems)
- Sensor positioning imitation (acoustic positioning for towed sensors)

For deep water areas, better resolution and better positioning are needed

The survey industrys solution:

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV)

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Fugros Echo Surveyor IV AUV

Kongsberg HUGIN 1000

Semi-autonomous vehicle
independently powered and
controlled (cable free).
Depth rated to 3000m.
Aided Inertial Navigation System
provides extremely accurate
positioning.
Positional accuracy of the AUV
is less than 5m, significantly
better than towed systems.

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Improved bathymetry data quality

Bathymetry from 3D
seismic data

AUV mounted
multibeam echo
sounder data

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Improved sub-bottom profiler data quality

2DHR Data AUV Chirp Data

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Improved seabed imagery quality

With option to
mosaic images

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Site Survey Operations

Onshore
Vessel PM, main point of contact
between survey vessel and client
Geoscience Team Leader
Offshore Full Survey Team
24 hour operations
1 Party Chief
2 Online Surveyors (Day/Night)
1 Technical Coordinator
4 Engineers (Day/Night)
1 QC Geophysicist
1 Environmental Scientist

Optional requirements:2nd Geophysicist,

Processing surveyor, Seismic processor,
Gun mechanic, Geotechnical survey
crew

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Interpretation and Presentation

Data interpretation
Variety of software used for the different datasets
Large volumes of data handled
Integration of all available data essential suitable software required

Final Product Site Survey Report

Comprehensive, structured and high-quality survey report
Often includes integrated geophysical, environmental and geotechnical results
Detailed figures and charts showing the final interpretation
Digital deliverable (CAD files, GIS deliverables)

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Summary
Geophysical site surveys are essential to ensure the suitability and safety
of sites for offshore infrastructure construction
During a site survey a large amount of information on the seabed and sub-
seabed environment is acquired
A detailed and integrated interpretation is required to turn this information
into a high quality site survey report for the end user
The requirements vary from project to project; techniques, data quality and
level of interpretation have to match these requirements

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Thankyou

AnyQuestions?

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