Offshore staff
SAN DONATO MILANESE, Italy — Shell and Petrobras have contracted Saipem to deploy the FlatFish subsea drone on pilot inspection projects at two ultradeepwater fields offshore Brazil.
Both projects are part of an R&D program of ANP, the Brazilian National Agency of Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels.
The aim is to qualify the drone to conduct vessel-free inspections for monitoring and maintenance of the subsea infrastructure.
FlatFish is a remotely controlled subsea-resident autonomous underwater drone designed to perform complex inspection tasks for a wide range of underwater facilities, and it will operate in water depths of more than 2,000 m.
Since 2018, Shell has licensed Saipem to work on the system, previously developed by Brazilian research institute SENAI CIMATEC, a Brazilian research institute, in partnership with DFKI, the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence, and funded by the R&D program of ANP (and EMBRAPII).
Saipem’s underwater technologies/robotics division, Sonsub, will lead the forthcoming activities over a 12-month period. During the first phase, intermediate tests in shallow water will take place at Saipem’s base in Trieste, eastern Italy, supported by Sonsub’s team in Brazil. The second phase will start offshore Brazil during the third quarter of this year.
05.24.2022
