Fugro deploys second vessel for Gigante Survey

Fugro has deployed multi-purpose offshore survey vessel Fugro Gauss to join the Fugro Brasilis offshore Mexico, to help complete the world’s largest seep-hunting survey for multiclient geoscience data company, TGS.

Both Fugro vessels are using hull-mounted multibeam echosounders (12 kHz on Fugro Gauss and 30 kHz on Fugro Brasilis) and sub-bottom profiler systems to map an area of approximately 625,000sq km in the deep waters of Mexico. The data acquired will assist in identifying sites where deep hydrocarbon-rich fluids are escaping to the seafloor and will be used to target hundreds of sites for coring and geochemical analysis.

The survey is being conducted for TGS as part of its industry-funded, multiclient “Gigante Survey” which also includes a regional 2D seismic survey of approximately 186,000km, gravity and magnetic data and a regional seismic structural interpretation. TGS aims for this project to be the most comprehensive and modern offshore Mexico dataset which ties into its existing US Gulf of Mexico regional 2D grid. The survey is designed to assist exploration and production companies in their evaluation of prospectivity offshore Mexico during forthcoming license rounds. Interest in this area is high following the denationalization of Mexico’s oil and gas market after seven decades of government control.

Image:TGS Gigante Survey in the southern Gulf of Mexico/Fugro