TWO north-east of England firms have joined forces to develop subsea remote drilling services for marine renewables.
SMD and Blade Offshore Services (BOS) have formed the joint venture called SMD-BORD to design and make an alternative to monopile and gravity foundations for wave, tidal and wind devices.
They say they will use drilling technology developed by BOS with SMD’s expertise in remotely operated systems to create subsea remote drilling rigs.
Initial dry tests on the drill cutter are already due to begin shortly.
BOS director of drilling operations management John Swingler said: “BOS view this is a major milestone in the development of remote drilling solutions for the marine renewables industry.
“The SMD-BORD joint venture will accelerate to market the design, engineering, fabrication and testing of the remote drilling technology and provide the industry with the solutions required for device installation engineering to move ahead.”
BOS was founded in 2006 as an offshore oil and gas industry service, initially specialising in failure mode effect analysis and technical risk assessment but moving into marine and drilling disciplines.
It is registered in Darlington, County Durham, and has a representative office in Brazil.
SMD, based at Wallsend-on-Tyne, has sites across the UK and offices in Singapore and Houston.
It was founded in 1971 and initially supplied equipment for the burial of pipelines and cables before moving into subsea. It bought Hydrovision in 2003.