Geotechnical, Geophysical and Metocean Expertise Around the World

Geotechnical Services

We are able to offer a comprehensive range of geotechnical services to customers throughout the world.

Projects conducted offshore by GEMS include geotechnical investigations for piled and gravity base foundation design, jack up stability, subsea templates, oil and gas pipelines, cable routes and windfarms.

The offshore investigations are centred on the three dedicated geotechnical and site investigation vessels: the MV Highland Eagle, the MV Investigator and the MV Albatros 1. These vessels are equipped with drilling rigs, wireline cone penetrometer testing (CPT) equipment, as well as the latest sampling tools and soils laboratories. In addition, the company can mobilise other vessels from its fleet or jack up platforms can be equipped with geotechnical drilling rigs and other specialist equipment to deliver bespoke solutions.

Deepwater geotechnical investigations are executed from dynamically positioned vessels using specialist deep water equipment. GEMS' newest deep water drill rig, the AMR600 is now installed on the MV Highland Eagle as of April 2011 and will, in addition to drilling boreholes, be capable of performing 20 tonne thrust CPTs in up to 1000m. For seabed investigations in deeper water (up to 3000m) we can provide a newly acquired 10 tonne CPT/vane test seabed unit with thrusters and specialist designed handling system in conjunction with a 25m jumbo piston corer. These systems will be mobilised on the AHT Maersk Logger from July 2011 together with box coring, shallow piston coring systems and onboard soils laboratory.

Offshore

  • Geotechnical instrumented drilling and rock coring investigations
  • Downhole geotechnical sampling
  • Wireline Piezocone Penetrometer Testing (PCPT)
  • Laboratory testing

Deep Water

  • Deep water site invetigations
  • 40m seabed PCPT to 3000m water depth
  • Jumbo piston coring

Engineering & Reporting

  • Piled foundation and shallow footing geotechnical design
  • Jack-up spudcan foundation analyses
  • Seismic response assessments
  • Pile driveability analyses