Global offshore and onshore geotechnical and surveying company, Fugro, which recently set up an office in Guyana, has procured a hydrographic vessel worth over US$135,000 for its operations here.
This was revealed by the company’s Marine Operations Manager Doug Chapman yesterday at a reception at the company’s Liliendaal office celebrating the arrival of the vessel.
Chapman said that the vessel will be used to survey the rivers to assess the depth of the water since one of the issues with bringing their vessels is the sand bar and shallow waters off the coast.
“What we want to do is map it and we will do it continually since the vessel will be based here. We need to constantly monitor it and that’s why the vessel is here,” he said, while revealing that the vessel itself costs around US$35,000 while the hydrographic equipment costs approximately US$100,000.
While they have other similar vessels working in other parts of the world, this will be the first that will be in Guyana and was brought in some two weeks ago.
“Fugro is engaged in all sorts of offshore surveys, we do [remote vehicle] work, we do geotechnical core drilling, surveys with aircrafts, land surveys,” he said.
Currently the company is partnering with Ground Structures Engineering Consultants, which is a geotechnical company that has been working in Guyana for over 29 years. They are equipped with a geotechnical lab.
Chapman said that while Fugro has been working in Guyana for “many, many years”, they only recently set up an office but have been doing seismic surveys and core drilling for ExxonMobil and Repsol.
However, he said that they envision that they will be helping the country to set up a hydrographic office.
“Our philosophy is not about how much local content but focuses on knowledge transfer. We want to take Guyanese and train them on how to operate the boat and the equipment, how to process the data. When we start mapping, we will set up a data lab and process the data here. The data is not primarily for us, it is for the Guyanese government and it could be used by whoever they decide to use it,” Chapman said, while adding that they will be working along with some personnel from the Guyana Lands and Surveys Commission.
