Maslin, Elaine
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Tech File: A Resident Eyeball ROV
There's also space in the market for resident observation systems, believe Boxfish Research and Transmark Subsea. The two companies signed a partnership agreement in October 2020 to deliver a fully autonomous resident observation ROV, the ARV-i.The ARV-i combines underwater vehicle, photography and robotics technology from Boxfish Research and underwater power and communications from Transmark Subsea.
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ROVs: Time for Renewal in the Work Class world?
There are tentative signs of the start of a renewal in the work class ROV fleet. But what form will it take?The work class ROV (WCROV) market has taken something of a battering over the past few years. The 2014 downturn and then a pandemic has meant the ROV services market and the fleet have suffered (see panels), alongside the rest of the offshore industry.Oversupply, thanks to a spate of investment in new vehicles through 2010-2014…
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Subsea Tech: Taking 3D Printing to the Seabed
Underwater pipeline repair is an unavoidable and also fairly intensive activity within the offshore industry. There’s a lot of it on the seabed, some of it is old and/or subject to corrosive substances and even damage by anchor or trawler gear. Until now, its repair is largely through installing clamps over specific defects or cutting out and then welding in new sections, when there are multiple defects…
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Subsea Mining: All Eyes on Marine Minerals Offshore Norway
Marine minerals are coming under sharp focus offshore Norway. Analysts suggest it could be a $20 billion annual revenue industry by 2050, which is why many are taking an interest and developing the technology to make it happen. Marine mineral mining has been something of a slow burner in the wider marine world. It has some clear challenges, not least location and depth of these potential resources…
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ROBOTICS: Meet Your New Offshore Robotic Co-workers; Charles, Eddie, ANYmal & Spot
Within the last 12 months, a series of significant steps have been made in the world of offshore robotics; a number of legged and tracked robots made their first steps onto and around offshore facilities in Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway and the US. For operators, it’s a big leap to have these things on facilities. For technology developers, it’s a big step towards future potential adoption offshore.In August last year (2020)…
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Need a Survey? There’s a USV for That
While the adoption of unmanned/uncrewed surfaces vessels (USVs) was initially in defence, use of these low footprint systems has spread into other sectors, not least survey, and now the race is on for greater capability, endurance and autonomy. Elaine Maslin reports.After starting small, in inland waterways, use of USVs for survey operations has moved into coastal and now offshore waters. Given the extensive amount of seabed and rapid growth in offshore wind…
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Subsea Tiebacks: A Troll with a Kinder Surprise
Equinor’s Troll Phase 3 project has been described as a real Kinder surprise. It’s Equinor’s most profitable project ever and comes with a minimum CO2 intensity for an offshore project. Elaine Maslin takes a look.Later this year, Norway’s Equinor is due to bring on stream its “most profitable project ever”. With a breakeven of less than $10/barrel, it’s indeed a low-cost project. It’s also got a low carbon footprint…
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2020: A Year Like No Other with a Mixed Outlook for Subsea
On many levels, 2020 was a pretty horrific year, “a year like no other”, according to Mike Beveridge, managing director of energy investment firm Simmons Energy, a division of Piper Sandler. It’s easy to see why. A dip into a negative WTI contract prices, Brent troughing at $23/b – the indicators were all pretty grim. The scary thing is, it could have been worse. But there is light at the end of the tunnel.Speaking at the Society of Underwater Technology’s (SUT) annual subsea market outlook…
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Fiber Optic Sensing and Mining an Ocean of Data
Fiber optic sensing is opening up vast new areas of research and data gathering potential, not least across our oceans, where existing cables could offer a new global sensing network. Elaine Maslin reports.Criss crossing between our nations, across channels and between continents are a multitude of cables – some 120 million km of them. Some are pretty old (the first international submarine cable was laid across the Channel, between the UK and France, in 1850).
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Autonomy: Inside the Building of Ocean Infinity’s Armada Fleet
Back in 2017, Ocean Infinity made a novel move; deploying six autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), instead of just one, from a single vessel, vastly increasing the ground that could be covered in a single survey. Now the firm is taking the use of remote, robotic systems a significant step further.Back in 2017, Ocean Infinity made a novel move; deploying six autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), instead of just one…
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Putting Power on the Seabed: Edging towards a Subsea Powerhouse
Ten years ago, a future where subsea fields and their power-hungry process equipment could be fully electrified, enabling long step-outs to tap remote reserves with lean new infrastructure architectures, lit the fuse for a spate of investment in subsea power distribution.The result, following at least two major joint industry projects (JIP) and tens of millions of dollars of investment, is that subsea power distribution is now a ready technology…
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What's In Store for 2021? More Remote, More Data, More Autonomy
Late 2018, before net-zero targets had been agreed to by most western energy giants and nations, BP came out with a goal to reach 100% of subsea inspection by marine autonomous systems by 2025.It was a tangible goal then, and it’s one that might now be reached faster as remote and more “digitally” oriented operations take hold with greater opportunities for new nimble players in the market. It’s a goal being chased in the offshore wind sector too.Some of it is about emissions targets.
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Unmanned Marine Systems, Squared
Unmanned platforms and underwater vehicles have been providing new ways for ocean scientists to study the ocean in more detail and over longer periods. What happens if one can deploy the other?The advantages of unmanned systems deploying others are multiple, not least in our expansive oceans. Deploying a glider (down to 1,000m) using a wave-propelled unmanned surface vessel (USV) means data can be…
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Pipeline Inspection with Fast(ER) Results
Finland’s Rocsole is hoping to provide operators with better, faster insight into their pipelines through a new compact inline sensor and a large dose of data analytics. Its inspection tool uses electrical tomography and digital signal processing to measure conductivity and permeability values within a pipeline. These are then analyzed to determine the content – fluid and solid – of pipelines or vessels…
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Subsea Technology and the New Routes to Residency
Efforts to increase remote capability often go hand in hand with increasing ROV residency. But exactly what form residency takes is diverging. Elaine Maslin takes a look.Dial back the clock five years and there was a movement towards an idea dubbed subsea resident remotely operated vehicles (ROVs). The idea, in simple terms, is that you increase ROV availability and reduce cost and carbon emissions by having the vehicle permanently based subsea in underwater garages.
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Charting Terradepth's Big Ambitions in the Unmanned Vehicle Space
Ocean mapping at scale is the target of a new unmanned systems player started by two ex-US Navy SEALS. They have big ambitions, from new building unmanned vehicles to creating the intelligence that will drive them to changing how accessible ocean data is. Elaine Maslin learned more. The pace of change in the ocean mapping space has been fast in recent years. New entrants have come into the scene offering…
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R&D: Robotics Advances Inside the ORCA Hub
Many of the more advanced mechanics of robotic systems are being developed as part of the Offshore Robotics for Certification of Assets (ORCA) Hub in Edinburgh. It’s a publicly funded project led by the Edinburgh Centre for Robotics (Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh), in collaboration with Imperial College London and the Universities of Oxford and Liverpool. We spoke with some of their specialists.First of all, what is robotics?
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Robotics: Autobots Transform in the Offshore Energy Sector
Robots and robotics have slowly been entering our lives, in various shapes and forms (and fictional characters), from self-driving household vacuum cleaners to highly automated manufacturing systems. Now they’re heading for the offshore world – in just as many shapes and forms.There could be a lot to gain from robotics, but platforms and offshore wind turbine structures are also very challenging places to put them on. For oil and gas, key drivers are around safety and cost .
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INTERVIEW: Kris Kydd, Head of Robotics, at Total E&P UK; Total’s “Stevie the Robot”
Total has been working on robotics for some years now, having launched the Argos challenge in 2013 and now getting ready to put the Taurob designed Stevie robot through its paces in a trial at Shetland Gas Plant. We spoke with Kris Kydd, Head of Robotics, at Total E&P UK.What have been the main lessons learned to date around enabling these systems to operate in an offshore environment?Total believes that robots have a huge amount to offer to our industry.
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Autonomous ANTX: Seismic Survey Tech and Port Security
Geophysical seismic surveys and port security may appear to have little in-common. However, it turns out that managing complex marine seismic operations, where 10km-long seismic streamers have to be deployed harmoniously alongside other offshore marine assets, isn’t that dissimilar to managing – and protecting – port facilities.It's an area that ION Geophysical, more known for seismic data acquisition technology…
February 2022
