Environmental Baseline Study, Block 2912 Namibia – 2022 – TotalEnergies E&P Namibia (TEEPNA)

General informations : TotalEnergies EP Namibia (TEEPNA) contracted Benthic Solutions Limited (BSL) for the provision of an Environmental Baseline Study (EBS) within Block 2912 located off the southwest coast of Namibia. Survey operations within Block 2912 were carried out aboard the supply vessel Bourbon Evolution 807 between the 30th of September 2022 and the 14th October 2022. Environmental operations were conducted across the survey area to gather information on the physico-chemical and biological environment prior to drilling activities. The area across Block 2912 is in the deep abyssal plain up to 400km offshore Namibia. The water depth in the survey area ranged from approximately 2,900m to over 3,700m below sea level. The sampling strategy was designed by BSL and Creocean to follow TEEPNA set investigation targets and station selection rationale. The sampling plan consisted of sediment and water column sampling combined with seabed video acquisition in order to provide a greater understanding of the regional seabed habitats. Opportunistic marine megafauna observations were also to be undertaken during the survey to provide an understanding of the marine mammal communities present in the Block.

Methodology Marine mammals : The survey included opportunistic observations of marine megafauna by marine mammal observations (MMO) and passive accoustic monitoring (PAM). Benthic macrofauna : 31 stations was sampled with a 0.25 m^2 Grey O’Hara box corer at Block 2912 in Namibia for the Environmental Baseline Study by TotalEnergies E&P Namibia (TEEPNA). Infauna were subsambled by a small frame, comprising an area of 0.1m^2. Station depths ranged between 2992 to 3624 meters. Sediment Particle Size analyses undertaken for each sampling event.