Fugro completes two of three seep hunting campaigns for Petronas

Fugro has successfully completed the second of three Malaysian seep hunting and geochemical campaigns for Petronas.

The second campaign was located offshore Sarawak and began on May 8, 2019, onboard Fugro Equator.

Acquired geophysical data included over 15,000 square kilometres of multibeam echosounder (MBES) data providing bathymetry, backscatter intensity, and water column information. More than 40 discreet water column anomalies, potential locations of active hydrocarbon seepage, were identified.

Using the MBES data in combination with over 3,600 line-kilometres of sub-bottom profiler data, Fugro and Petronas’ geoscientists identified 350 locations for coring and geochemical analysis.

Fugro Equinox mobilised on May 29 to target these locations. Over the course of two months, 275 piston cores were acquired and more than 1,600 near-real-time geochemical analyses – including headspace gas, total scanning fluorescence, and extracted hydrocarbon gas chromatography (C15+) – were conducted.

The third seep hunting and geochemical campaign for Petronas will begin in the third quarter of 2019 and will take place offshore Peninsular Malaysia in the Straits of Malacca.