ROBOTICS: Meet Your New Offshore Robotic Co-workers; Charles, Eddie, ANYmal & Spot
don’t know about these issues that are specific to offshore oil and gas assets, says Bartoli.It’s just as important to prove reliability, he says. Which is why, in November (2020), two Taurob Inspectors (named Charles and Edward) were handed over to TotalEnergies for a 12-month trial at Shetland Gas Plant, where only Total staff are operating them. There, they’re doing rounds autonomously in a MEG (gas dehydration) treatment unit. This is a big step, says Matthias Biegl, co-founder at Taurob. “Using robots in an operational environment with us not being there, handing over to
Robotics: Autobots Transform in the Offshore Energy Sector
robot when it was trialled on Chevron’s Alba platform in 2017, then, in 2018, the quadruped ANYmal robot made a debut on a Dutch offshore wind converter station.Time for trialsTotal is now getting closer to trialing a robot co-developed with Taurob, initially for 12 months onshore at its Shetland Gas Plant, while in Norway Aker BP has plans to trial a number of systems, including a Boston Dynamics Spot quadruped, on the Skarv floating production vessel ,and Oxford Robotics Institute has been testing an adapted ANYmal quadruped for its suitability offshore at a fire training center. A lot
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. We are pioneering their use on oil and gas sites, and the last seven years have seen progress, and lots of lessons learned! Robots offer
Total Makes Major Offshore UK Gas Discovery
near its Edradour field, will be tied back to the existing infrastructure and developed quickly and at low cost.Total said the discovery will extend the life of the West of Shetland infrastructure and production hub which includes the Laggan, Tormore, Edradour & Glenlivet fields, as well as the Shetland Gas plant, all of which contribute to about 7 percent of the UK gas consumption."Glendronach is a significant discovery for Total which gives us access to additional gas resources in one of our core areas and validates our exploration strategy," Arnaud Breuillac, President of Total's Exploration
February 2026
