Energy major BP has hailed a landmark survey of its decommissioned Miller field controlled 600 miles away in Southampton.
BP’s digital science team worked with marine robotics company Ocean Infinity to deploy remotely operated vehicles to inspect pipeline in the field, located around 150 miles north-east of Aberdeen. The Miller field ceased production in 2007, with all wells plugged and abandoned the following year.
The topsides and jacket were removed for recycling and disposal as part of a campaign during 2017 and 2018. At the time BP said over 40,000 tonnes of equipment would be transported to Norway for onshore demolition and recycling.
The successful survey marked a major step towards fully autonomous marine inspections that will help remove risk, reduce carbon emissions and lower costs.
Working together since 2020, the team completed the survey using a semi-autonomous inspection vessel which had a crew of just 16 instead of the usual 70-plus.
The operation also remotely monitored marine mammal activity and collected valuable data on the state of assets.
Elinor Doubell, senior principal, digital science: “This landmark demonstration proved the concept of lean-crewed offshore inspection and is the first step toward a completely transformed way of working more safely at sea using remotely operated technology. Huge congratulations on a fantastic cross-BP collaborative effort.”
Ocean Infinity said its in-house software team has been developing a system called the dynamic payload controller (DPC) that enables remote operations from conventional systems over the past few years.
The DPC integrates launch and recovery systems, underwater vehicles – in this instance a Saab leopard ROV – and other elements of the ship to safely operate over satellite communications.
Perfect opportunity
Ocean Infinity has been commissioning the DPC’s system on Armada 7802, a steel hulled robotic vessel via satellite since November last year and has been accruing over 400 over-the-horizon dives remotely in Norway from Southampton.
The firm, which was founded in 2016, said the Miller project was the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the new lean-crewed operation.
© Supplied by BP“The objective was to carry out three of the five inspection categories; pipeline, risers and a jacket hardware inspection using fast digital imaging,” said a spokesperson for the firm.
Traditionally, this operation would have been conducted from a vessel with 70 crew onboard with offshore operators sitting in a controlled survey shack on the ship.
The spokesperson added: “Now we have a smaller, smarter vessel that holds 16 crew whilst our ROV pilot, co-pilot, and supervisor are based onshore in one of our bridge stations.
“The ROV team used a mission plan from our survey team in Gothenburg that was imported into the DPC. With this, the ROV was deployed and conducted the survey with only a handful of button clicks.
“This has been a fantastic milestone for Ocean Infinity not only conducting remote operations safely and efficiently but also producing high-quality data.”
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