PanGeo Subsea has been contracted to undertake an unexploded ordinance survey (UXO) for an unknown Scottish North Sea windfarm project.
The search, due to start later this month, will cover an area of 18km2 and up to a maximum depth of 6 meters.
While looking for unexploded material – which includes bombs, mines, bullets and unspent artillery shells – the survey also searches for inter-array cables, export cables and pieces of offshore platform.
According to their website, PanGeo will use a Sub Bottom Imager (SBI) to explore the sub-seabed depth to ‘reduce the amount of potential targets identified in earlier magnetometer surveys by up to 75%’.
Moya Cahill, President of PanGeo, said: “With the increase in the offshore renewable energy sector in the UK, Denmark and France we’re seeing a requirement for UXO surveys. The cables, as well as offshore windfarms, are being built in areas where in the past we’ve seen dumpings and droppings of these UXO’s between England and the continent Europe.”
“The way that the regulatory industry works, for each magnetic target that’s picked up in a magnetometer survey [the company] are required to investigate it to determine whether it’s a false-positive reading or a positive reading. [The risk] is significant enough that the regulatory regime are emphasising this and enforcing this very significantly across the market.”