Oceaneering and bp Conduct First ROV Remote Piloting Operation Offshore West of Shetland
Oceaneering’s Onshore Remote Operations Center in Stavanger, Norway.
December 17, 2021 – Houston, Texas — Oceaneering International, Inc. has successfully conducted the first onshore remote piloting of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) in the U.K. sector for bp. The operations were conducted from Oceaneering’s Onshore Remote Operations Center (OROC) in Stavanger, Norway.
This project was the first implementation of ROV remote piloting in the U.K., the first cross-border implementation, and the first operational implementation for bp.
Oceaneering was tasked with observing drilling operations at bp’s Clair Ridge facility West of Shetland, at 141 meters water depth. The operation ran from 20 July to 5 August 2021.
ROV remote piloting from shore can increase safety and reduce the environmental footprint of operations, potentially achieving up to 25% reduction in offshore personnel on board (POB) and provide a significant reduction in emissions associated with the work.
Oceaneering and bp worked together to ensure secure offshore connectivity for the remote ROV piloting operations. This required a complex setup process to establish a bridge between the data networks of both companies, without compromising their respective cyber security policies. The result of the collaboration established a secure data link via subsea optical fiber to the worksite offshore.
The Stavanger-based remote piloting team operated the ROV for over 70 hours during the campaign program with 100% uptime. The implementation of this project was achieved by a global support team comprising members from the U.K., Norway, India, and the U.S.
“The operation was a successful demonstration of not only new technology, but a demonstration of continued resilience and protection of the offshore workforce during COVID-19,” said Martin McDonald, Senior Vice President, Subsea Robotics, at Oceaneering. “Oceaneering’s OROC team can continue to operate and remain the eyes and ears of an operation – from any location around the world – during unforeseen disruptions and report back information to the client.”
“The success of this innovative solution at Clair Ridge builds increased credibility and familiarity to remote ROV operations. By using experts located onshore in Norway instead of offshore personnel, the safety risk was reduced,” said Tom Fuller, VP Wells at bp North Sea. “It’s also a great example of how remote technologies can deliver emissions reductions on our assets, aligning with bp’s ambition to be a net zero company by 2050 or sooner. This project has helped bp to better understand the benefits and challenges of implementing remotely piloted ROVs – learnings that we can take forward into future opportunities here and across our global operations.”
Katy Heidenreich, OGUK’s Supply Chain and Operations Director, said: “This project demonstrates how operators are empowering supply chain companies to develop innovative techniques to help cut greenhouse gas emissions. Industry collaboration is bringing innovative technologies to the fore and accelerating the process for getting them from field trials to deployment in the North Sea, helping us on the journey to deliver the UK’s target of net zero emissions in 2050.”
The Stavanger OROC was established in 2015 and has conducted numerous ROV remote piloting operations in the North Sea and Gulf of Mexico for other clients.
For more information, please visit: oceaneering.com/remote-services
Articles To solve the unsolvable, Oceaneering seeks out the utmost experts in their respective fields. We provide engineered services and products primarily to the offshore energy industry. Today, we also use applied technology expertise to serve the defense, entertainment, material handling, aerospace, science, and renewable energy industries. With a varied and diverse pool of expertise, Oceaneering strives to be the go-to thoughtleader in our wide-ranging on- and offshore service lines. We thrive by creating industry-changing technically creative solutions for the most complex operational challenges under water, on land, and in space. Our experts are sought out for their knowledge and experience, to shed light on the latest innovative technology and trends within the wide-ranging industries we serve. Our experts are able to speak to these subjects because they are out in the field, working shoulder-to-shoulder with our clients and associated contractors. They work closely to devise solutions to problems that couldn’t be solved otherwise. We demonstrate our value every day, striving to complete projects on-time and on-budget. Our experts have penned thousands of words on topics related to remotely operated vehicles, subsea hardware, asset integrity, flow assurance, diving, survey and mapping, vessels, well intervention, workover control systems, pipeline repair, inspection, non-destructive testing, decommissioning, renewables, umbilicals, valves, marine services, product testing and qualification, data management, vessel navigation and positioning systems, science and other research, and space systems. Our articles section shines a spotlight on our best and brightest thoughtleaders offering history, data, case studies, and even opinions on industry trends and service techniques, so that we may open a dialogue with the rest of the industry, in order to see how we can all better ourselves and come up with the latest solutions and processes yet to be created. We partner with industry publications and other newsmakers to help tell our story and those of our clients because we aim to not only solve the unsolvable but demonstrate our value and expertise as a company, every single day. We do this work with much importance placed on safety, because safety is instilled in every worker, in every region in which we do business.
Company page Since our founding in the early 1960s, Oceaneering has expanded and grown globally to service several industries such as the offshore energy industry, defense, entertainment, material handling, aerospace, science, and renewable energy industries. In 1964, Mike Hughes and Johnny Johnson formed a Gulf of Mexico diving company called World Wide Divers. The company grew in response to increasing demand for their services and in 1969 merged with two other diving companies to form Oceaneering International, Inc. To solve the toughest challenges, we do things differently, creatively, and smarter. As your trusted partner, our unmatched experience and truly innovative portfolio of technologies and solutions give us the flexibility to adapt and evolve, regardless of market conditions. Our mission is to solve the unsolvable. We thrive by creating industry-changing technically creative solutions for the most complex operational challenges under water, on land, and in space. Our five core values establish a common culture and demonstrate what is most important for us as a company. Since the beginning, the company has transformed from a small regional diving company into a global provider of engineered products and services. Today, we develop products and services for use throughout the lifecycle of an offshore oilfield, from drilling to decommissioning. We operate the world's premier fleet of work class ROVs. Additionally, we are a leader in offshore oilfield maintenance services, umbilicals, subsea hardware, and tooling. We also serve the aerospace, defense, and theme park industries. Underpinning everything we do, safety is not only the foundation of our core values, but it is vital to our unmatched performance record and company culture. The industries we serve are as diverse as they are complex. Whether we are engineering deepwater umbilicals or developing robotics for aerospace applications, the safety and health of our employees, vendors, and customers is an integral part of our day-to-day business. If we are working, then our responsibility is to be working safely. Since our inception in 1964, we have placed a high value on employee safety—from diving services and subsea inspection to vessel-based installation operations. We have and will continue to evolve not only our health, safety, and environmental (HSE) processes, but those of the industries in which we work. Although we have been fatality-free since 1999, our HSE journey goes beyond statistics. As our portfolio of services has grown, we have continued to prioritize and advance our approach to HSE.
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