The National Subsea Centre (NSC), a center for subsea research and technology development, announced it has been awarded a grant to develop a subsea decommissioning optimization software demonstrator with PlanSea, which offers marine logistics artificial intelligence (AI) technology.
The grant was awarded to the NSC and PlanSea by the Scottish Funding Council in partnership with Scottish Enterprise to assist in developing a subsea decommissioning optimization AI demonstrator.
The challenges of large-scale and complex subsea decommissioning have presented the need for optimization in this area to secure a cost-effective and resource-efficient outcome while contributing to net-zero targets by reducing emissions. The UK is expected to spend £21 billion on decommissioning over the next 10 years.
“Our center is uniquely positioned to address the subsea industry’s most pressing challenges,” said James Njuguna, NSC’s director of research and innovation. “Our in-depth knowledge of marine operations offers a great opportunity to collaborate with PlanSea to provide operators with substantial savings and reduce emissions.”
The National Subsea Centre and PlanSea have collaborated for many years to use AI to optimize marine logistics. Together, the two organizations aim to use the technology and skills developed to address the needs of the subsea decommissioning sector.
“The AI demonstrator is aimed at addressing both standalone and collaborative campaign optimization of current and future decommissioning,” said Jim Cargill, CEO of PlanSea. “Additionally, as in marine logistics, we offer a digitalized process for users whilst, at the same time, enhancing visibility of operational activity.”
The two organizations are developing a robust task-based formalization of offshore decommissioning activities that aim to extend the benefits of PlanSea marine-logistics AI. As a result, decision-makers would have the ability to simulate with a high degree of accuracy the cause/effect relationship between different strategies and key performance indicators of interest. The project is planned to produce a robust AI tool, fast-tracked for initial trials in the second quarter of 2025.