JFMS survey clears Black Sea site to support future oil exploration
CUMBRIA -- James Fisher Marine Services (JFMS) completes deep-towed subsea survey project for Lukoil, one of the largest publicly traded oil and gas companies in the world, in waters proven to preserve treasures dating back to Venetian golden era of centuries ago.
Conducted offshore Romania, in the Black Sea at ~1,000-m water depth, the deep-towed subsea survey covered an 8 x 6.13-km grid over three planned exploration wells in the Ex30 Trident Block, mobilizing out of the port of Constanta.
Being the site of a recent discovery of 60 shipwrecks that brought artifacts dating back to the Roman, Byzantine and Ottoman periods to the surface for the first time in centuries, the Black Sea is a region of significant scientific interest globally.
Part of leading UK marine services company, James Fisher and Sons plc, JFMS delivered the scope on Lukoil’s behalf in order to comply with new Romanian environmental law dictating that the Russian oil and gas company must perform an archaeological clearance survey. This looks to identify any potential archaeological targets, and where none remain, sanctions the area as being clear of any archaeological interest.
Lukoil, and the local diving authorities, had little experience of a survey of this scale before, previously using a platform-based solution only suitable for smaller areas. Exploiting its expert survey knowledge, JFMS deployed a deep-towed solution that vastly reduced the operation time to within five days.
