INSITE Oil and Gas ROV video survey questionnaire

Abstract

The INSITE Data Initiative aimed to identify data that has been collected by energy companies which could be valuable to research into the influence of man-made structures on the North Sea ecosystem. We developed a questionnaire to gather data from major oil and gas companies in the UK to establish what video archives they have of their subsea infrastructure with a focus on offshore platforms (jackets) and pipelines. The operators were asked to assess whether their footage was of a high enough resolution to identify species growing on their assets and to be used as part of an ecological assessment of the role these structures now play in the North Sea ecosystem. This questionnaire was designed to identify what marine growth surveys have been conducted, who carried out the surveys, the number of assets surveyed and the intervals at which they are surveyed. It also asks for contact information for the key people involved in archiving the files and who would be responsible for obtaining permission to access the data. The questionnaire was circulated on the 9th of June 2016 to ExxonMobil, Total, Shell, Talisman-Sinopec (now Repsol), Centrica, CNRL, Marathon Oil and BP. All 8 operators responded. Their completed questionnaires are hosted here. This project was conducted at Heriot-Watt University (March 2016 - October 2016) then transferred to the University of Edinburgh (October 2016 - March 2017).