1990 - 1st HGS seismic survey in Zimbabwe within the National Parks of the Zambezi Rift Valley скачать в хорошем качестве

1990 - 1st HGS seismic survey in Zimbabwe within the National Parks of the Zambezi Rift Valley

In 1990 HGS crew 1622 started a seismic survey in the National Parks of Zimbabwe within the Zambezi Rift Valley. The crew operated east of Lake Kariba at the time of these video recordings. In 1991 the crew returned and moved more to the west and included the Zambian side of the Zambezi after which the crew continued back in Zimbabwe, south of Lake Kariba. It was a high profile environmental-sensitive project (see more details under "notes" further below), and client Mobil did everything to ensure that this survey would leave no footprint of our exploration activities. Hence helicopter hours were no issue. We were not allowed to take any trophies from the bush. Lines were brought back into their original natural condition by special Green-Teams, also to prevent wildlife to start following cut seismic lines and poachers to take advantage of this. In fact, HGS was in close contact with anti-poaching teams to ensure our 6 bush camps along the seismic lines were not accidentally mistaken for poacher camps: Poacher camps were ambushed by armed anti-poaching units, which would be a nasty experience for our HGS personnel sleeping out in the bush. The crew had 1 base camp and 6 bush camps. The bush camps were moved by helicopter every day and housed all line access, survey, drilling, recording and green teams. There were 177 Zimbabwean junior staff employed, of which 148 stayed in the 6 bush camps. In addition the crew employed 35 armed guards & game scouts. There were 51 International & Zimbabwean senior staff assigned to this project, with 4 in Harare office and 51 on crew (with 33% away on break rotation). In addition there were 20 Helicopter personnel and 4 Client representatives including those out on break. Unfortunately I only recorded video during the 1st survey in 1990. My original video-tapes were digitized recently, which gave a remarkable quality uplift of my video material. In addition client Mobil had a professional camera team sent to the crew to film some of the execution of this survey which was included in their documentary "The Green Thin Line". My contacts got hold of this video only recently, hence some fragments of this documentary have been included in this new ScholSoft Productions release. Enjoy the coverage of this seismic survey in the good old times when conducting seismic surveys was executed by true professional doodlebuggers, who were allowed to enjoy what they were doing and to drink plenty of beer after working hours! Featuring in order of appearance: Mark Gunther - Mobil Exploration Manager Zimbabwe, Gerrit Schol – Gravity & GPS (and Video producer, Director and cameraman), John Greener – Utility, Jaap Min - Explosives Supervisor, Dave Elliott – Driller, Richard Flannery – Surveyor, Graham Mansfield – Utility, Dave Sterry – Party Chief, John Fawcett – Deputy Party Chief, Peter Rowe - Client Rep, Stuart Tollins – Surveyor, Alan Stobbart – Observer, Keith Hawdon – Observer, Charles Woodward – Gravity, Brian O’Flynn – Equipment repair, Brian Breach – Medic, Paul Johnson- Mechanic, Dale Edwards – Seismologist, Piere Gautherot – HGS Country Manager Zimbabwe, various of the helicopter crews. Further notes: Prior to the survey commencing in 1990 the EIS was conducted by ULG Consultants Ltd a UK based company with offices in Harare, ULG a member of the Robertson Group, had previous experience of preparing environmental impact studies associated with mineral exploration and development. At the conclusion of the 1990 season, ULG conducted a survey of the seismic lines/camps, this report published in January 1991 concludes that HGS have conducted the survey in exemplary manner. One significant comment was that it was difficult to locate lines to draw any conclusion. (So lines could not be visually recognised anymore while looking for them in the bush). The NGO report to the Government concluded that "the environmental impact to date was negligible". At the conclusion of the survey in 1990 the general consensus of opinion amongst all interested environmentalists was that the survey had been conducted to their satisfaction, that they could see no long term effects. Which can be summarized as: We did a good job environmentally!