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N-Sea has selected Geosoft’s Oasis montaj and UXO Marine software to detect unexploded ordinance that pose a hazard to its customers operating in the North Sea and other offshore regions.

N-Sea surveys, inspects, maintains and repairs subsea infrastructure for the oil and gas and windfarm industries using a fleet of ships and teams of divers, ROV pilots and surveyors. Before any installation begins, N-Sea surveys the proposed routes and turbine array areas and removes any UXO left over from wars and munitions dumping.

N-Sea’s projects range from pre-installation hydrographic and geophysical surveys, to replacing clamps on oil rigs, to inspecting oil and gas pipelines. One of its latest jobs involved UXO risk management, investigation and clearance for the Galloper windfarm off the coast of Suffolk.

The Dutch company runs geophysical surveys, including magnetometry, to look for munitions along the routes proposed for cables and pipelines. UXO Marine allows N-Sea to check the quality of the raw data collected and then generate maps and charts of the results. Once UXO targets have been confirmed, N-Sea removes and disposes of them for its customers.

“We clear the seabed so they can go ahead and lay their pipes and/or cables for their installation,” says David Murray, survey and inspection data centre manager for N-Sea. “The Geosoft software is easy to use and it works. We have detected dozens of UXO with UXO Marine on several major projects over the past year.”