Fugro and TGS are working together to find hydrocarbon seeps in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) as they carry out a survey called Otos, a news release said.

The survey follows the 2016 completion of TGS’ industry-funded Gigante survey, which spanned 1,500 km (932 miles) in the Mexican GoM, in 2016.

The latest effort involved deploying two geophysical survey vessels—Fugro Gauss and Fugro Brasilis—to acquire multibeam echo sounder (MBES) and sub-bottom profile data over the western, central and eastern regions of the U.S.’ continental slope, according to the release.

“With the acquisition of the Otos seep survey, Fugro will have mapped almost 1,000,000 sq km [386,102 sq miles] of seep and geological features over the entire Gulf of Mexico,” Garrett Mitchell, an exploration geoscientist for Fugro, said in the release.

Geoscientists onboard the vessels, in water depths ranging from 750 m (2,461 ft) to more than 4,000 m (13,123 ft), will analyze seafloor bathymetry, acoustic reflectivity, and shallow subsurface structures to identify hydrocarbon seep features on the seafloor and throughout the water column, the release said.

Hopes are that the results will provide insight into the regional-scale distribution of hydrocarbon seeps throughout the entire deepwater area of the northern Gulf of Mexico, the release said. Data collected will aid a subsequent geochemical coring campaign. TGS will license the data to E&Ps to support development activities in the region.