Fugro will expand its remote subsea inspection survey offerings to Brazil after Petrobras signed a 175-day addendum to a current Fugro contract.
Beginning in January, Fugro will deploy its Blue Essence uncrewed surface vessel (USV) and a Blue Volta electric remotely operated vehicle (eROV) to inspect shallow-water infrastructure offshore Brazil, Fugro announced 18 December. The contract’s value was not disclosed.
Located near Petrobras’ port of operations, Fugro’s remote operations center in Rio das Ostras, Brazil, will support the upcoming inspection work.
In March 2023, Fugro announced completing the country's first-ever remote subsea inspection survey using an ROV deployed from the Fugro Aquarius while staff in an operations center in Aberdeen piloted the ROV using a high-speed datalink provided by Petrobras.
The Fugro Aquarius is carrying out the current inspection, repair, and maintenance services contract.
According to Fugro, the uncrewed solution reduces carbon emissions by 95% as compared to approaches that require on-site personnel. In addition to lowering the risks associated with traditional offshore operations, the USV also provides near-real-time access to project data for faster decision-making, Fugro said.
And in OTC 35258, Fugro said it’s possible with USVs to collect more data per dollar.
“Compared to traditional crewed vessels, USVs can potentially collect between 14% and 38% more data because of reduced mobilization time, depending on the duration of the project,” the paper stated.
Fugro said it has previously deployed its Blue Essence USVs offshore Australia, the UK, and the Middle East.
The Fugro Pegasus USV, which is part of the Blue Essence fleet, completed a subsea survey and inspection of the UAQ3 platform in the Umm Al Quwain gas field for Chinese operator Atlantis, Fugro announced in August 2023. For the deployment, a Blue Volta eROV inspected the integrity of the platform’s structure and generated a detailed map of the surrounding seabed. The data collected was streamed to the operation center so Atlantis could review the data in real-time during the operation to quickly identify and investigate areas of further interest in developing a risk assessment for the upcoming decommissioning program.
Fugro’s Blue Essence fleet was built by SEA-KIT International. In January, Fugro announced the Fugro Vaquita had joined its Blue Essence USV fleet. The UK Maritime Coastguard Agency has awarded the Fugro Vaquita a Category 0 approval, which is its highest level of approval for autonomous vessels.
