Fugro, the Netherlands, 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, Norway.

Both vessels are using hull-mounted multibeam echo-sounders and sub-bottom profiler systems to map an area of approximately 625,000 square-kilometres 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.

“Fugro has a dedicated centre of excellence in Houston for seep-hunting,” explained Jim Gharib, Fugro’s global product line manager for seep studies. “The team includes several of the world’s leading geoscience experts responsible for bringing seep-hunting to the offshore industry. Our recent successes include nine seep data collection and geochemical analysis projects in the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean and South East Asia.”

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 186,000 kilometres, gravity and magnetic data and a regional seismic structural interpretation.