Blue Ocean Monitoring conducted the Yampi geochemical glider survey (Yampi project) a research and development project undertaken, and wholly funded by Blue Ocean Monitoring.
The Yampi project built on the knowledge gained from previous geochemical surveys and incorporated the use of methane sensor technology, never been applied to underwater gliders, to enhance the ability of gliders to detect hydrocarbons in water.
After integration of the methane sensor Blue Ocean Monitoring deployed the underwater glider in the Browse Basin, Western Australia. The glider was capturing methane and fluorescence (a measure for crude oil) data, along with other oceanographic properties, at 1 second intervals and over the full water column for a period of 15 days.
According to the company, survey results were very positive with high concentrations of methane, up to 160 times background measured, this correlated well with historical data sets. Additionally, by using a fluorometer on the same vehicle, Blue Ocean Monitoring was able to analyse if longer chain hydrocarbons were present, which aids in the understanding of whether petroleum systems have biogenic or thermogenic origins.
Blue Ocean Monitoring believes that underwater glider technology with state of the art hydrocarbon sensor packages has great potential to disrupt traditional survey methods by providing highly accurate in-situ data, in near real time for a fraction of the cost.