Marine Notice: 3D Seismic Surveys In Celtic Sea

6th April 2013

#MarineNotice - Further to the recent notice of a 2D seismic survey in the Atlantic waters of the Irish continental shelf, Marine Notice No 14 of 2013 advises mariners of two full 3D seismic surveys in the Celtic Sea off the south coast.

CGG will be conducting the surveys on behalf of Fastnet Oil & Gas as part of its option on the Deep Kinsale Prospect, as previously reported on Afloat.ie.

The works are expected to commence in later this month and are expected to last around 50 days, subject to weather, beginning with the Deep Kinsale survey followed by the Mizen survey.

The seismic vessel SR/V Vantage (Call sign LMHY3) is scheduled to carry out the work. The vessel will be towing 10 cables, each 6km long with 100m separation for a total width of 900m, at a depth of seven metres. The vessel will also tow two source arrays, each made of three subarrays, each with a width of 16m and at a depth of six metres.

The seismic vessel will be accompanied by support vessel M/V Oms Resolution (Call sign HP5135) and chase vessel M/V Stormbas II (Call sign V4EM2).

In addition, as part of the Deep Kinsale survey, a second 3D seismic vessel M/V Artemis Angler (Call sign LAGU7) will assist in an undershoot of the Kinsale Alpha and Bravo platforms. The two 3D seismic vessels will sail in parallel at the same speed, one on each side of the platforms using streamers. The undershoot aspect of the acquisition is expected to last two to three days.

The seismic vessels will be restricted in their ability to manoeuvre whilst carrying out the surveys and all other vessels are requested to give these operations a wide berth. All project vessels will be listening on VHF Channel 16 throughout the project.

All vessels, particularly those engaged in fishing, are requested to give the SR/V Vantage, the M/V Artemis Angler and their towed equipment a wide berth and keep a sharp lookout in the relevant areas.

Full details of co-ordinates of the survey areas are included in Marine Notice No 14 of 2013, a PDF of which is available to read or download HERE.

Published in Marine Warning

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MacDara Conroy

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MacDara Conroy is a contributor covering all things on the water, from boating and wildlife to science and business

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