Sonardyne Launches Intelligent Subsea Monitoring Tool

Underwater technology specialist Sonardyne has launched Observer, a new advanced monitoring system for real-time integrity management of subsea infrastructure across the offshore energy industry.

Observer combines high and low frequency motion and position monitoring, powerful in-built analytics and wireless communications to deliver live insight into how subsea assets are truly behaving.

This means unseen process and environmental challenges, from pipeline expansion and contraction to vortex and flow induced vibration, can be addressed before they become a problem, lowering risk and intervention and costs, while extending asset life. 

Out the box, it’s ROV-deployable, can interface with a wide range of third-party sensors, and can be deployed for up to 10 years at 3,000 m, according to the company.

"Observer shows asset integrity managers how their subsea assets are really behaving, not how they hope they are, with an easy to deploy solution that provides high quality data.

"Observer changes that with an off-the-shelf, versatile and user configurable product. It reveals asset behaviour, in real time, without adding operational complexity. This gives operators the confidence to act early, reduce risk and avoid the unexpected downtime that have long challenged offshore operations,” said Frank Rose, Business Development Manager – Subsea Asset Monitoring at Sonardyne.

Observer is designed for use on all subsea assets, through the water column, including pipelines, risers, moorings, umbilicals, wellheads and associated infrastructure, helping integrity managers to reduce uncertainty and strengthen decision‑making. 

The system is easily user configurable, putting control in asset managers’ hands, while data offloading is available on demand, at any time, through Sonardyne's trusted underwater communications.