France's Artelia has appointed Fugro of the Netherlands to undertake geophysical and geotechnical surveys for Abu Dhabi National Oil Company’s (Adnoc) Hail and Ghasha offshore gas development.

Artelia was hired as the project management consultant by Adnoc for the design and survey of artificial islands around its Hail and Ghasha offshore gas fields.

Fugro has said it has begun work on the Ghasha field with an equipment suite that includes self-elevating platforms for geotechnical work and crew accommodation.

In the Hail field, an inter-tidal shoal area, Fugro is conducting surveys with amphibious buggies while in deeper water, marine geophysical and bathymetric surveys are being performed using its survey vessel, Fugro Proteus.

Bathymetric, multibeam echo sounder, tide gauges, ultra high resolution seismic sub-bottom profiling, magnetometer and side scan sonar make up the geophysical survey activities at the site, Fugro said.

Earlier this month, Adnoc confirmed awarding two FEED contracts for its offshore ultra-sour gas mega project, which consists of the Hail, Ghasha and Dalma fields, to the UK’s Bechtel and France’s TechnipFMC.

Located offshore in the Gulf’s waters, the Hail and Ghasha gas development is part of Adnoc’s largest sour gas field project and supports the company’s strategy to unlock its developed sour gas reserves to ensure a sustainable and economic gas supply to the UAE.

The Hail, Ghasha and Dalma project taps into Abu Dhabi’s Arab formation, which is estimated to hold multiple trillions of cubic feet of recoverable gas and from which the project is expected to produce more than 1 billion cubic feet of gas a-day, enough gas to provide electricity to 2 million homes.