Shell, Ocean Infinity on Uncrewed Seep Hunting Mission

Oil and gas giant Shell has teamed up with offshore robotic ship operator Ocean Infinity to combine expertise and assets to execute multiclient seep hunter projects.

"The combination of Shell’s specialist seep hunting expertise and Ocean Infinity’s ‘Armada’ fleet of robotic ships, will provide effective location targeting and wide-scale coverage. In turn, this will culminate in more reliable results, improving the focus of exploration work with fewer risks and environmental impacts," Ocean Infinity said Wednesday.

Ocean Infinity’s Armada fleet, which will become operational next year, will be equipped with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) offering deep-water coverage on a large scale.

The Armada will initially add 15 marine robots to Ocean Infinity’s current fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV).

Each unmanned surface robot will be able to serve a wide range of industries by being fully equipped to perform a multiplicity of offshore data acquisition and intervention operations down to a depth of 6,000 meters. These robot ships will be capable of remotely deploying a wide range of the latest sensors as well as AUVs and remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROV) for visual and acoustic data acquisition.

Commenting on the deal with Shell, Katya Krylova, VP Business Development Oil & Gas Exploration Services, Ocean Infinity said: "Historically the most fruitful and successful collaborations are formed during the most challenging times. Ocean Infinity is very excited to begin our new multiclient data chapter, and we are especially delighted to commence this endeavour with Shell."

“The deployment of the Armada fleet will mark a major technological advance in the industry and redefine traditional ways of working. Refining our ability to conduct tasks such as seep hunting using uncrewed technology opens up possibilities in so many other areas; the experience gained as a result of this collaboration could prove transferable to other offshore tasks such as carbon capture storage (CCS) monitoring”, she added.