TDI-Brooks International, under contract to TGS, said April 2 it has completed its offshore “seep-hunting” surface geochemical analysis and geotechnical campaign of the MSGBC Basin, from Northern Senegal through The Gambia and AGC zone, into Guinea-Bissau down to the Guinea transform fault.
TDI-Brooks’ R/V Gyre acquired 80,000 sq km (30,888 sq miles) of high-resolution multibeam echosounder bathymetry and performed the offshore advanced analysis where 80 active hydrocarbon seeps were detected in the multibeam water column data to date. The R/V Proteus completed phase 2 performing the coring program which included 260 piston cores, 23 jumbo piston cores and 23 heat flow measurements. Advanced geochemical analysis of samples is ongoing.
The R/V Gyre is currently performing a further geochemistry analysis program offshore Nigeria. This is Nigeria’s first regional multi-client multibeam and seafloor sampling (MB&SS) study. After just 3 days of field operation, two prominent water column anomalies and bubble plumes were observed in over 2,000 m (6,561 ft) water depth with associated surface slicks. The study will cover an area of approximately 80,000 sq km of the offshore Niger Delta and will incorporate around 150 cores from the seabed, which target multibeam backscatter anomalies. To this date, the RV Gyre has collected 65,000 sq km (25,096 sq miles) of multibeam data and identified 431 water column anomalies in the Nigeria study area.
These programs follow the successful coring program in Brazil’s Campos and Santos Basins in 2019 covering over 213,000 sq km (82,239 sq miles). This program included 342 piston cores, 29 jumbo piston cores and 33 heat flow measurements. The Gyre is fitted with a EM302 MBES and should be available for programs off North, West, and East Africa after June 2020.
The Proteus is in dry-dock for two months and then available for work in the June timeframe. She is undergoing her five-year dry-docking and retrofitting in Las Palmas. The Proteus will be available on the spot market for projects in West Africa.
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