Santos proposes to conduct a vessel-based survey in permit area AC/P50 located in Commonwealth waters, within an operational area of 5 km by 5 km centred around the proposed well location. The operational area is approximately 650 km west of Darwin and approximately 200 km north west of the nearest shoreline.
The survey activities are collectively referred to as vessel-based activities (VBA) and will help to inform future drilling activities (subject to separate EPs). The VBA will include the following surveys:
+ geophysical and hydrographic surveys such as:
- acquisition of multi-beam echo sounding (MBES) and side-scan sonar (SSS) data to define the bathymetry/seafloor morphology (for example, depth, bedform character) and confirm the absence of debris or other anomalous seabed features
- identification of any hazards that may impact the location of a MODU or equipment through sub bottom profiling (SBP).
+ geotechnical surveys such as seabed sampling/coring for ground-truthing the surficial geophysics and to support MODU spud-can penetration assessments
+ AUV and ROV surveys, with various equipment attached, to provide information about buried objects and the existing environment (water and seabed parameters).
The activities will take place any time from acceptance of EP in the second half of 2021 to the end of 2022. The VBA may be undertaken 24 hours per day and extend up to 10 days.