This weekend, 22-23 June, Statoil will begin seabed mapping of the Snøhvit field in the Barents Sea.
Potential routes for the pipelines and cables between the gas deposits in the Snøhvit field and the plant at Melkøya in Finnmark county will be mapped, reports Arne Indreeide, Statoil coordinator for the mapping.
The work also includes mapping the areas where the subsea installations are to be sited in order to ensure the most favourable location for pipelines and equipment.
The work, which is expected to take two to three weeks, will be carried out from the special ship Normand Tonjer, which was converted into a mapping vessel a few years ago and is fitted with state-of-the-art equipment such as remote-controlled subsea tools, multi-beam echo sounders, side scan sonar and video cameras.
The mapping will be followed by geotechnical surveys on the field and along the pipeline routes. Gisle Håland, coordinator for these surveys, explains that samples will be taken from the upper layers of the seabed at the Snøhvit and Albatross deposits and along the pipeline routes between the subsea installations and Melkøya.
This work will be carried out from the special ship Bucentaur. The geotechnical surveys are estimated to last three weeks starting in mid-July.