• Australia
  • Oceania
  • Asia-Pacific
Case Study

ASV Survey

Leading the way in performing autonomous marine surveys in Indonesia.

Bintang Subsea completed a comprehensive Geophysical, Geotechnical and Bathymetric survey to support the development of new offshore pipelines and floating facilities in the remote and challenging conditions of West Papua, Indonesia.

The site – one of the most remote areas in Indonesia – required exceptional planning and logistical management to safely and efficiently support offshore and inshore operations.

In areas with depths ranging from drying to 50m, and large tidal variations and strong currents, a range of techniques and technology was used to map the seabed bathymetry, locate buried pipelines & cables, identify seabed hazards, map shallow geological features and collect seabed sediment cores.

With a limited time window to complete the work due to the seasonal weather restrictions, very limited facilities and support available nearby, and a wide range of environments to operate in, multiple survey teams and vessels were needed to operate simultaneously, in rivers, estuaries and offshore.

Remote sites and challenging conditions are our way of life.

To increase data acquisition efficiency in the very shallow areas, a remotely operated autonomous survey platform (ASV) was also deployed, and monitored by our surveyors remotely.

The ASV allowed the team to efficiently survey areas that were inaccessible for a manned vessel, and reduce the duration required to survey such large shallow areas.

Project at a glance

Location: West Papua, Indonesia
Duration: 70 days
Vessels: 4
Survey team: 12
Survey equipment used:

  • Multibeam echosounders
  • Sidescan sonars
  • Sub-bottom profilers
  • Marine magnetometers
  • High resolution multi-channel seismic
  • 6m piston corer, 4m vibro-corer
  • Seabed tide gauges
  • Metocean wave & current buoys

 

Project outcome

The survey was successfully completed collecting high quality data that was processed to deliver another meaningful report meeting client’s objectives and expectations.

Bintang Subsea once again demonstrate their superior logistical, organisational, and technical survey skills to deliver a complex projects in remote regions that make them the ‘go-to’ survey house from Africa to Asia Pacific.

Use of an autonomous survey vessel to survey shallow and inaccessible waters proved a huge success in increasing efficiency and reducing costs