Sea Dragon – Local Work Class ROV Development

The Sea Dragon will be a work class ROV capable of betweem 2,000 and 3,000 meters deep. It´s main use will be in pre-salt plays and other deepwater plays along the Brazilian offshore areas. The R$ 7 million (3,5 million) financing for its development and construction has already been approved and by Finep (A Brazilian Science Ministry Projects Financing Organization) and construction and testing have already begun. Eight Brazilian companies and institutions are participating in the project; Itin (IT and Communications Institution of Ceara), CTI-NE (IT Center Renato Archer- Northeast Campus, the Federal University of Ceara (UFC), Univasf (São Francisco Valley Federal University), Armtec Robotics Technologies and BWV Consulting.

The ROV is being built in phases, but the majority of parts will be built at the Univerdity of Fortaleza laboratories, with the participation of graduate students of IT, Mechanical Engineering, Automation and Electric Engineering.

Petrobras is highly interested in the project as it extensively uses foreign made ROVs in its deepwater Oil and Gas E&P efforts at huge costs. A national ROV production would tremendously lower these costs and also add to an increase in local content of equip´ment as most of the equipment for this project can be manufactured in Brazil.

The main drawback is that the companies building the Sea Dragon do not have the extensive experience in deepwater work class ROVs as does the foreign competition, therefore the Brazilian builders will need to be extremely thorough in their design and testing in order to avoid setbacks that could jeopardize the reliability of the SeaDragon.