Publications

Eni Indonesia entered in the hydrocarbon exploration of Bintuni Basin, West Papua, at the end of 2011 by acquiring the right to explore the Arguni I block. The first activity planned was the acquisition of a 3D Seismic Survey in transitional area, which includes land, sea, river estuaries and mangrove forest. Due to its peculiarities, the area presents criticalities from technical, logistic, environmental and social point of view. This paper will provide highlights on the operational efforts of this challenging and successful project. The objectives of the project were: A) to acquire a state of the art, fit for purposes, 3D seismic volume in a complex environment, B) to keep the highest industry HSE standards, C) to establish good and lasting relations with local communities. Eni designed a fully multi azimuthal acquisition template to face the expected illumination problems (presence of faults, karst carbonate layers) and, at the same time, optimized the source and receiver density to minimize the operation complexity and costs. Several operational issues have been successfully managed during the operation such as: construction of about 300 km of bridging, handling of sea tides of 6m excursion, massive number of workers transportation involving 100 vessels and 5 accommodation camps, potential presence of UXO (Unexploded Ordinance). The numerous HSE aspects related to the operation in such complex area will be only marginally touched in the paper, since a dedicated presentation will cover them in detail. The main achievements of the project that will be discussed are: 1) the project challenges and organization, 2) HSE performance which exceeded the most optimistic expectations and industry average results, 3) The establishment of good relations with local communities, 4) the excellent quality of the acquired data.