By Alva Solomon
UNITED States oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil is increasing its oil exploration momentum here as the firm has contracted geophysical survey company, Fugro Geoservices Inc. to survey the sea floor off the coast of Guyana, starting today.

A crew member onboard the Fugro Americas explains the operations onboard the ship

The exercise will commence at high tide when the relatively new survey ship, the Fugro Americas fans out into the Atlantic with a technologically equipped autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV), which can carry out deep water activities utilizing highly digitalised still cameras, among other equipment.
The submarine gives accurate illustrations of the sea bed, profiles of the floor and marine activities, among other forms of data.
The survey will be undertaken over the next three months, ending in March, and will take place some 95 nautical miles off the coastline, Fugro’s Project Manager, Connie Landry told members of the media during a guided tour of the ship yesterday at the John Fernandes Wharf.

“PRE-DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITY”
Coming on the heels of the Liza-1 well discovery in May this year, the planned survey has been described as “pre-development activity” by ExxonMobil, and also entails a detailed survey of the sea floor as well as a visual check of any hazards at the bottom of the sea.
Landry said that providing all arrangements at Port Georgetown are completed in time, the ship will leave the John Fernandes Wharf with its 32-member crew for sea.

A crew member of the Fugro Americas stands near the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) or submarine at the stern of the survey ship

The team will spend Christmas at sea, and return to shore on December 29 when it makes a scheduled crew change.

GEO-TECHNICAL PHASE
He said that the project will stretch until March 2016, but the bulk of the offshore duties will end around February. In that month, a geo-technical phase of the project will be activated, whereby additional equipment will be installed on the ship. This includes refrigeration equipment, which will hold samples retrieved from the sea for additional testing. Those tests will be carried out over a three-week period.
During the tour of the state-of-the-art ship, crew members spoke of its advanced capability in offshore operations. The ship, which was built and constructed within the past 18 months, was officially waterborne in April this year.
According to the firm, the ship was immediately mobilised to the Caribbean for a highly successful geochemical coring campaign.
Measuring 193 feet in length, the company said that the multi-purpose vessel is well suited to high-resolution geophysical surveys and seafloor mapping, and is permanently mobilised for rapid deployment to locations throughout North and South America.
AUV
One of the most important pieces of equipment onboard the vessel is the AUV (autonomous underwater vehicle), a submarine made of hardened carbon fibre material, and capable of reaching a depth of 3,000m (9842 feet).
Members of the tour, which also included employees of the Guyana Geology and Mine Commission (GGMC) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), were afforded an opportunity to see the AUV being launched from its holding facility on the ship’s lower deck.
The vehicle, which is monitored remotely from the ship, is equipped with cameras, and can be monitored from the surface, using remote technology.
“We do all of the mission planning on board, and it does what it supposed to do,” onboard staff, Erik Long said during the tour.
Running on three high-powered lithium batteries, he said that the AUV is meticulously capable of following instructions inputted from the ship. While underwater, it floats within 100m of the ship, and can reach low depths in the vicinity of 8m (26 feet) from the sea floor.
The precise operations are undertaken through close collaboration between the crew onboard ship, and the geophysical team stationed at the lower deck of the ship.
Inside the AUV’s holding room, geophysical staff informed guests that the sides of the submarine are sonar-equipped and can give accurate pictures of what the sea floor looks like through highly developed cameras which are attached to the front and back of the submarine. It gives an idea of the layers and the sediment at the bottom of the sea, they explained

INTELLIGENT DEVICE
“It’s a very intelligent device, it is very automated, and so it can drive itself. It has sensors on it to allow it to carry out its functions properly,” Landry said.
Typical turnaround time during missions at sea, runs for 4-10 hour periods and the information retrieved is downloaded on a computer in the holding room. The batteries of the submarine are the main pieces of equipment which has to be changed on return to the water surface.
Landry said that so advanced is the submarine, that a sister AUV is currently working in the Indian Ocean in search of the Malaysia Airlines MH370 jet which disappeared from radar screens last March en-route from Malaysia to China.
In May this year, Exxon Mobil announced that the Liza-1 well encountered more than 295 feet of high-quality oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs.
The oil discovery on the Stabroek Block, located approximately 120 miles offshore Guyana, subsequently led to strained diplomatic relations between Guyana and Venezuela, with the Bolivarian republic renewing claims to the county of Essequibo.
In June this year, a Guyana Chronicle report stated that ExxonMobil had expressed confidence in exploration activities here and the company planned to deploy further resources in this regard. The announcement was made by Minister of State Joseph Harmon following meetings with executives of the oil giant.
Yesterday afternoon , a team of government officials, including Minister of Governance, with responsibility for Natural Resources and the Environment, Raphael Trotman, was expected to tour the Fugro Americas.