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Hydrographic & Seismic - Hydrographic Survey
Survey data vital to selecting routes for subsea pipelines
Long subsea pipelines need a safe and stable route to shore. Pat Fournier, Senior Geophysicist with
Australia's Neptune Marine Services, explains the need for good quality survey data from beneath the
seabed.

Australia's North West Shelf (NWS) is an isolated offshore geographic province extending 2400km along the
northwest margin of the continent and is Australia's largest oil and gas region. Four major sedimentary basins occur
along the shelf, namely the Carnarvon, Canning, Browse and Bonaparte, from south to north respectively. The
southern margin of the NWS is approximately 1200km north northwest of Perth, the capital city of Western Australia
and the administrative centre for most exploration activity and associated oil field services.

Since the discovery of oil in Australia in 1953 at the Rough Range-1 well, onshore Carnarvon Basin, interest in oil and
gas exploration has increased. In 1964 oil was discovered on Barrow Island and the NWS continued to grow and
eventually became Australia's premier oil and gas province replacing Victoria's Gippsland Basins.

In the 1960s and 1970s regional offshore geological and geophysical exploration of the NWS led to the discovery of
natural gas and condensate deposits in the Carnarvon, Browse and Bonaparte Basins, commencing with the Rankin
discovery in the early 1970s. With gas replacing fuel oil in Australian homes and factories, increasing global energy
demands, and LNG exports becoming a more viable source of income for the Australia economy, oil and gas
companies and their export partners are looking to further exploit the large natural gas reserves in the Australasian
region and specifically along the NWS.

Australia currently has two LNG processing plants; the North West Shelf Venture (NWSV) in Karratha and the Darwin
LNG Plant, that deliver gas to local and international markets. These two facilities are located approximately 1800km
apart along one of the most natural gas rich and remote coastlines in the world. The remoteness of the NWS is
becoming less of a deterrent to investors as infrastructure develops in the region (with the aid of increased
government support), and the large size of new natural gas discoveries offsets the high financial commitment
required by the oil and gas companies to develop their fields.

The new large natural gas discoveries along the NWS have occurred towards and beyond the 200m isobath (shelf
break) requiring the design and construction of long subsea pipelines to deliver the gas back to the coast for
processing and export. The new subsea pipelines can either tie back to the existing LNG plants, or the oil and gas
companies can incorporate the design of new processing facilities as part of their proposals. Because of the large
investment commitment these development projects pose for oil and gas companies, the aim is to mitigate the
potential of damaging their assets both during installation and once they are installed on the seabed. Part of this
involves contracting hydrographic survey companies to map the proposed subsea pipeline routes to avoid potential
pipeline instability and damage.

One such company specialising in this work is Neptune Marine Services based in Belmont, Western Australia.
Neptune Marine Services is established as one of Australia's leading providers of integrated engineered solutions to
the international oil and gas, marine and renewable energy industries. Neptune Geomatics, a subsidiary of Neptune
Marine, is a hydrographic survey company specialising in MODU positioning, geophysical site surveys, pipeline route
and cable route surveys and offshore construction positioning support services.
In 2008, Neptune Geomatics was awarded a contract to survey a proposed 870km subsea gas pipeline route
traversing both the Browse and Bonaparte Basins and terminating in Darwin Harbour. The pipeline is designed to
deliver gas to a new processing facility in Darwin. The remoteness and duration of the proposed survey work,
coupled with the tight reporting deadlines to tie in with the front-end engineering design (FEED) of the project,
required reliable and proven survey equipment to be used during the campaign.

The objectives of the survey were to obtain reliable sub-bottom profiling data to accurately map the shallow geology
in the survey area of >5000 line km through which the proposed route would run. The Applied Acoustics' Sub-bottom
Profiler, the CSP-D 2400 was the preferred energy source to power the Applied Acoustics' AA301 Boomer for the
duration of the survey. The CSP-D 2400 charged at 1000 joules/second for a continuous two month period, with no
equipment faults. This proved to be a significant advantage during the survey as it provided the survey crew and
pipeline engineers with good quality data to assist pipeline route planning and design.

The efficient and reliable progress achieved during the route survey allowed for further site survey work in the field to
investigate the suitability of the shallow geology for the planned seabed infrastructure. The objectives of the field work
required the acquisition of sub-bottom profiler data in increased water depth while achieving approximately 150m
sub-seabed acoustic penetration. During this phase of the survey, the Applied Acoustics' Squid 2000 was teamed to
the CSP-D 2400. The CSP-D 2400 charged at 1500 joules per 1.5 seconds for a continuous three week duration,
with no equipment downtime, and assisted in acquiring good quality sparker data to the required depths and the
client's objectives.

Due to the success of the survey campaign, Neptune Geomatics will continue to use the proven and reliable sub-
bottom profiler equipment provided by Applied Acoustics Engineering to meet its client's objectives. Easily installed
and operated, the CSP-D 2400 energy sources generate a safe energy supply. In the two years since purchasing the
units, Neptune Geomatics has enjoyed repeatable, reliable energy outputs to towed boomer and sparker sound
sources and remains confident moving forward with the technology into the future.

Enter X at www.engineerlive.com/ihss

Patrick Fournier is the Senior Geophysicist with Neptune Marine Services, Perth, Western Australia,
Australia.www.neptunems.com. Applied Acoustics Engineering Ltd is based in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk,
UK.www.appliedacoustics.com

Tags:
subsea , pipelines , oil , gas , exploration , energy , processing , plant , design , engineering , power , technolo
gy

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Topographic Surveying

The changes in topography can have a great influence on determining the nature of
features in a geographical survey. It is vital to produce a detailed and complete
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Site gridding using GPS and DGPS.

Hydrographic Surveying

The extraction of the river network from a digital elevation model(DEM) plays a
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Route Surveying
We offer Route Surveying which is related to the layout and construction of
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pipelines, electric transmission lines, rail lines and roadways. Our route surveying
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is factored into plane geometry and trigonometry. High accuracy levels become
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to surveying methods. Route surveying is done with the highest levels of skill
Projects

Survey of 165 km state highways in Assam under S.M.E.C. Pty. Ltd. It covered 6
packages expanding across 4 districts like Udalguri, Goalpara, etc. The job involved
making Bench Mark with DGPS followed by Level Transfer and thereafter detailing
with Total Station.

Survey of 225 km state highway in the land of "Rising Sun" Arunachal Pradesh. It
provided connectivity across areas like Passighat, Pangin, Koyu, Ego, etc. It was a
challenging opportunity to work in rugged terrain & hostile environment.

Survey of 2000 km of rural roads and pathways under PMGSY scheme in Tripura
State for NBCC and HSCL. The job involved about 1500 km of new alignment and
500 km of upgradation. Days after days our surveyors worked in closed coordination
with security personnel in Terrorist prone area.

Survey of 1200 km rural roads and pathways under P.M.G.S.Y scheme in Bihar for
IL&FS for new connectivity. These projects provide connectivity across 10 districts in
Bihar. Our survey team earned huge reputations for speedy and accurate
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Topographical survey of "SASAN POWER PLANT" in Madhya Pradesh under Reliance.

It covered an area of about 4500 Hect. in four parts namely Main Plant, Township,
Ash Pond, R&R Colony. Survey has been carried out with DGPS, Total Station, and
Digital Auto Level.

A huge bridge project has been proposed to connect across Luhit and Khabuli near
north Lakhimpur in Assam. There will be two bridges with an embankment of about
2 km totalling about 4 km length. A Detailed Topographical and Hydrographical
Survey was carried out over an area of Approx. 8 sq.km. Survey of rivers Khabuli
and Luhit was a challenge of our survey engineers which they passed with honours.

Coal conveyor route surveying of about 60 km in Lanjigarh & Sasan under Vedanta
& Reliance.

City survey in Agartala, Imphal and Dimapur. These surveys are carried out for
development of drainage and sewerage disposal system and required cross
sections, levels of all roads along with manholes. All the three towns are in North
East, are congested and have high rainfall. Extensive use of GPS was made for
transferring the levels and coordinates on each and every roads at an interval of
about 200m.

Topographical survey of closed power plant at Tanda, U.P. under NTPC. The aim was
to prepare the existing plant and colony drawing before expansion by NTPC is taken
up. The site was also a learning ground for our engineer with respect to plant
survey.and the applied technology.