Oil and gas giant, Statoil, today unveiled their remote-controlled oil rig with the opening of the Valemon control room in Bergen.
The control room is designed and built in such a way that the Valemon platform can be entirely operated from land.
If successful, the control room could operate many of Statoil’s other small to medium sized rigs in future.
Gunnar Nakken, head of the operations west cluster in Statoil, said: “This is a vital milestone for Statoil. We have had land-based surveillance and control of offshore operations for a long time, however, the remote control of Valemon marks one important step forward on our digitalisation journey.
“Most of our production will still be carried out on large, manned platforms, such as Aasta Hansteen and the Johan Sverdrup platform, but for somewhat smaller platforms and fields it will absolutely be considered. First, we must gain experience from Valemon.
“Thanks to new technology and knowledge we can utilise the advantages of our smaller, standardised building blocks that are combined differently from field to field for optimal resource exploitation. We want to combine the best technology, below and above water, to find optimal solutions for every project, thereby ensuring safer operation.”
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