Dutch company Fugro has started a program of geophysical and geotechnical surveys for Artelia, Abu Dhabi as part of the Hail and Ghasha development, a landmark project by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC).
Located offshore in the Arabian Gulf, the Hail and Ghasha gas development is part of ADNOC’s largest sour gas field project and directly supports the company’s strategy to unlock its developed sour gas reserves to ensure a sustainable and economic gas supply to the United Arab Emirates.
In order to meet the fast track schedule of the project, Fugro said on Thursday it mobilized to the Ghasha field with specialized equipment including self-elevating platforms for geotechnical work and crew accommodation.
In the Hail field, an inter-tidal shoal area, it is conducting surveys with amphibious buggies while in deeper water, marine geophysical and bathymetric surveys are being performed using its survey vessel, Fugro Proteus.
Chris Arnott , Fugro’s Project Delivery Manager, explained: “The geotechnical workscope includes boreholes, grab samples, vibrocores, cone penetration tests, pressuremeters and down hole seismic.”
Bathymetric, multibeam echo sounder, tide gauges, ultra high resolution seismic sub-bottom profiling, magnetometer and side scan sonar make up the geophysical survey activities at the site, Fugro said.
Louis Burnard , Fugro’s Country Manager, UAE added, “Our involvement in this strategic project for the United Arab Emirates further strengthens Fugro’s relationship with ADNOC. It follows more than 30 years of collaboration across all of the company’s subsidiary operating companies in Abu Dhabi.”
Earlier this month, ADNOC awarded two FEED contracts for its offshore ultra-sour gas mega project, which consists of the Hail, Ghasha and Dalma fields, to Bechtel (UK) and TechnipFMC (UAE).
The Hail, Gasha and Dalma project taps into Abu Dhabi’s Arab formation, which is estimated to hold multiple trillions of cubic feet of recoverable gas and from which the project is expected to produce more than one billion cubic feet of gas per day (cfd), enough gas to provide electricity to two million homes.