HOUSTON -- Fugro has been awarded a contract by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Ltd., an Exxon Mobil affiliate, for survey services at a deepwater field development offshore Guyana.

The contract provides for an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) geophysical survey and an environmental baseline survey, along with shallow geohazard and geotechnical coring.

The discovery of more than 295 ft of high quality, oil-bearing sandstone reservoirs in the Stabroek Block of Liza field represents a significant deepwater production find in the Guyana-Suriname basin.

Fugro will acquire, process and analyze high quality AUV multi-beam bathymetry, side scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler data, as well as environmental and geological/geotechnical samples, providing seabed and shallow sub-seabed information to support the initial development of offshore structures in the field. The survey will cover an area of approximately 640 km2 in water depths reaching 2,800 m.