Ask anyone in the business and they will tell you that once under way, a towed streamer marine seismic campaign is never plain sailing. There are so many potential practical challenges to consider such as weather, tides, vessel traffic, environmental restrictions and infrastructure obstacles, not all of which can be taken care of in the survey planning stage.
Yet any disruption to the survey operation that leads to downtime comes at a substantial cost, and the vessel contractor is increasingly being obliged to pick up the tab.
