Offshore staff
FARNBOROUGH, UK – Blue Ocean Seismic Services (BOSS) has completed sea trials of a test prototype version of its autonomous underwater vehicle offshore Australia.
BOSS’ shareholders are Blue Ocean Monitoring, bp Ventures, and Woodside Energy.
The self-repositioning autonomous underwater nodes, designed for long endurance, will perform offshore seismic surveys for oil and gas exploration and reservoir optimization, also serving to identify and monitor potential carbon storage sites beneath the seabed.
During the trials, the testbed ocean bottom seismic robotic vehicle (tOBSrV) traversed a series of waypoints, while simultaneously providing status updates to a master vessel.
It also logged flight and engineering data which is being used for further systems development.
The trials also validated BOSS’ electronics and software system, confirming its efficacy underwater. Collected data collected will support the design and development of the final product ahead of commercialization.
The next priority will be the construction and testing of 10+ alpha prototypes, followed by a seismic sea trial in the North Sea.
Erin Hallock, managing partner, bp Ventures said: “Once in production, this vehicle will make global offshore oil and gas exploration, reservoir optimization and other marine seismic applications cheaper, faster, safer, and importantly, less carbon intensive.”
05/11/2021
