HELMS Delivers yet another Successful Completion of Shallow Gas Pilot Holes and Jack-up Rig Soil Boring Assignment offshore Sarawak for PETRONAS

Miri, 6 December 2022 – Helms Geomarine Sdn Bhd (HELMS) has just completed a geotechnical drilling campaign in offshore Sarawak, Malaysia for PETRONAS, within an area well known for extensive shallow gas presence and anomalies via its dedicated DP2 soil boring vessel, the Keyfield Helms.

Working in water depths of around 40 meters, the geotechnical operation involved four pilot holes up to 85m below seabed together with a number of continuous samplings and downhole PCPTs up to 70m below seabed to obtain undisturbed soil samples and reliable CPT data for Jack-up spudcan penetration analyses.

Deputy General Manager, Firdaus Shahidan said, “Based on the results of the geophysical data made available by the Client, shallow gas anomalies were expected to be of high probability at various depths from just below the sea floor until over 100m below seabed. To mitigate the gas and associated risks, our team worked very closely with the HSE and Marine team of PETRONAS to come up with a rigorous Risk Assessment Analysis and establish mitigation measures for pre and post pilot hole drilling to ensure a safe operation. Among the initiatives include pilot hole drilling performed during daylight only, safety drills as well as the use of piping gas diverters during sampling and PCPT operation”.

Given the fact that a pilot hole-related incident took place a few years ago not far from the current site, the project received full attention and a proactive participation of the senior management of PETRONAS. The successful completion of this project is evident that geotechnical drilling in an environment with high probability of shallow gas is still possible so long as the necessary preparation, precaution and mitigation measures are in place.

The Keyfield Helms is now in Bintulu port to prepare for its next assignments which will include not only soil investigation projects for PETRONAS but also for PTTEP and SHELL.

Besides operating the Keyfield Helms in South East Asia, HELMS still maintains an ongoing drilling operation in Japan for offshore windfarm development and it is expected to continue through the winter season until early next year.