Fugro conducting seep surveys offshore Malaysia

June 14, 2019

Offshore staff

HOUSTON Fugro has completed the first of three seep hunting and geochemical campaigns offshore Malaysia for Petronas.

The first project, offshore Sabah, Malaysia, began on Dec. 21, 2018, aboard the Fugro Equator vessel, which acquired geophysical data including multibeam echosounder (MBES) and sub-bottom profiler (SBP) data used to interpret geologic features and optimize target selection for geochemical sampling.

Targeted coring operations and shipboard geochemical analyses started on Jan. 6, 2019, aboard the Fugro Equinox vessel and was completed on March 20, 2019. 

More than 6,600 sq km (2,548 sq mi) of MBES data comprised of bathymetry, backscatter intensity, and water column, approximately 2,245 line km of SBP data, and 281 geochemical cores were acquired.

According to Fugro, shipboard geochemical results for headspace gas, total scanning fluorescence and extracted hydrocarbon gas chromatography (C15+) were carried out on more than 550 samples taken from acquired cores.

Dr. Awang Sapawi Awang Jamil, geochemist for Petronas, said: “… The receipt of geochemical analyses from the vessel was very helpful in de-risking our area of interest and in accelerating our project timeline by allowing earlier identification of samples to be sent for advanced geochemical analyses.”

The second project began last month offshore Sarawak, Malaysia.

The third campaign will be focused off the Straits of Malacca, Malaysian peninsula, in 4Q 2019.

06/14/2019