BP plans shallow water seismic at Liberty

Click here to read the PDF version of this story.
Print this story | Email it to an associate.

BP Exploration Alaska Inc. is planning a three-dimensional shallow water seismic survey in the Beaufort Sea to support its Liberty oil development project.

The survey would cover 135.8 square miles of shallow water in Foggy Island Bay and be shot later in the year after the sea ice melts and opens up waterways off the North Slope.

Its purpose is to collect geophysical data required to support the ultra-extended reach drilling program for Liberty.

The survey would cover parts of the Duck Island unit, the Endicott satellite drilling island and main production island, the Liberty unit and adjacent state land and state and federal waters.

CGGVeritas would conduct the survey for BP.

Mobilization is planned for late May or early June with seismic acquisition scheduled to begin on July 1 and would continue about 60 days, until the start of the bowhead whale migration season. BP expects to finish the survey by October.

The Alaska Coastal Management Program is taking comments on the proposal through Feb. 29.

—Eric Lidji