TDI-Brooks recently completed two environmental post-operations surveys (EPOS) projects in Mexico for TOTAL in Block 2 (Perdido) and Capricorn Energy Mexico (CAIRN) in Block 9 (Sureste Basin). The Block 2 EPOS program was in deepwater (approximately 3,300 m) offshore northern Mexico, while the CAIRN project was in shallow water.

These were the first EPOS programs completed in a COVID-19 work environment. In order to minimize risk and avoid local quarantines at Mexican ports, TDI-Brooks mobilized one of its four multi-use oceanographic research vessels, RV Emma McCall, from Texas to conduct this program on a 25-day cruise leg with short, restricted port calls in Tampico for inward and outward clearances.

The cruise was conducted successfully, acquiring 45 sediment and 22 CTD water stations in these blocks. Sediment sampling involved box core (BC) acquisition, which included photographic documentation of the seafloor at each site with a benthic camera attached to the BC. The box core sediments were subsampled for macroinfauna, meiofauna, sediment chemistry and redox profiles. At selected water column sites, CTD/water/rosette casts were acquired. For the deepwater program, plankton nets were also deployed, and lowered ADCP measurements were acquired to measure current profiles.