NSC, PlanSea get grant to expand AI tool to subsea decommissioning

The Scottish Funding Council has awarded the National Subsea Centre (NSC) a grant to develop a subsea decommissioning optimization software AI-demonstrator with marine logistics AI technology specialist PlanSea.

According to the NSC, large-scale and complex subsea decommissioning requires optimization to secure a cost-effective and resource-efficient outcome.

Over the next 10 years, the NSC expects UK offshore E&P companies to spend £21 billion (US$26.7 billion) on decommissioning.

The NSC has been working with PlanSea to adopt AI for marine logistics. They will now deploy the technology to address the needs of the subsea decommissioning sector.

Their goal is to give decision-makers the capability to accurately simulate the cause-effect relationship between different strategies and relevant KPIs, with the resulting AI tool set to start trials in second-quarter 2025.

According to a PlanSea spokesman, “The AI demonstrator is aimed at addressing both standalone and collaborative campaign optimization of current and future decommissioning.

“Additionally, as in marine logistics, we offer a digitalized process for users whilst at the same time enhancing visibility of operational activity.”

Additional subsea research partnership

Earlier this year, the NSC formed a partnership with Southampton-based NOC Innovations, which fosters marine research and autonomous technology for use by organizations worldwide.

Researchers, engineers and scientists at the two sites will jointly address marine-related issues, helping to develop solutions for robotics, sensors and instrumentation, data science, artificial intelligence, imaging, object detection and classification, digital twins, simulation and remote sensing.