The UK’s BMT Group has acquired ARGOSS, a specialist provider of marine environmental information services using satellite observations, meteorological and oceanographic data.
BMT says ARGOSS brings a crucial new capability to the group as it has long-standing expertise in supporting planning, design and forensic investigations and forecast data.
The Dutch firm provides downtime analysis and feasibility studies, making use of cutting-edge in-house models and databases of waves, wind and tides.
It also specialises in the mapping and monitoring of water quality, bathymetry and coastal morphology through the use of satellite observations.
BMT says that all of these services will soon be linked and integrated with specific applications software from its existing suite of offerings, thereby “enriching” the service provided to the group’s customers across the maritime, energy, transportation and defence sectors.
ARGOSS MD Han Wensink said of the deal: “There is a growing industry need for access to long-term archived, near real-time and forecast information to support offshore and coastal activities and reduce operational risks. A wealth of scientific environmental data is available within space agencies, universities and other public/governmental organisations, but it remains difficult to secure access to this information.
“BMT and ARGOSS aim to address this gap while also becoming a major private-sector player in value-added atmospheric services for governmental agencies and the construction, transport, food and insurance sectors.”
Peter French, CEO at BMT, said: :”We have worked with Han and his team at ARGOSS for some time on a number of very successful projects, so this announcement consolidates a productive link between our two companies.
“Across the group, we have some expertise in this area and have long supported a chair in marine informatics at Reading University in the UK, but see this as a significant step forward in expanding our capability and enhancing our offering to customers.”
The history of ARGOSS and BMT includes:
Metocean studies to support design of offshore structure in Bohai Bay, China, and pier design for the island of Boracay, Philippines.
Bathymetry in the Gulf of Khambhat North, route analysis in Qatar and tow analysis for floating dry docks.
Metocean studies for four platform locations in the North Sea, including extreme value analysis of wind and waves.
Input wind fields for Oil Spill Information System (OSIS).
Oil spill trajectory modelling – Nigeria and Tobago.
Hindcasts and historic wind and wave information in support of investigations of maritime accidents for a number of locations around the world. including the Red Sea.
Wind and solar radiation data to support current modelling for areas in the Middle East and around Australia.
Meanwhile, BMT (BMT Cordah in Aberdeen) consultancies Gifford and Hunter Associates, Bierrum International and the University of Nottingham, EON UK and DONG Energy have joined forces to design a means of transporting and installing concrete gravity foundations for offshore wind turbines to enable easy deployment in water depths of 25m and more.
The aim of the project is to achieve substantial reductions in both the construction and offshore installation cost of deepwater windfarms.
The team involved hopes to reduce the expense compared with current steel monopile/tower solutions.
This is particularly for larger turbines in deeper water such as will be required for the next and imminent UK licensing round for offshore windfarms (Round Three) and for more challenging existing sites such as Scarweather Sands and in the German North Sea.
The project has received funding from the UK Technology Strategy Board, under its Emerging Energy Technologies programme, and from EON UK.