Neptune Energy has awarded a subsea inspection contract, understood to be worth around £2million, to Fugro at its Cygnus gas field.
Fugro will deploy state-of-the-art technology and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) from the Edda Sun vessel to carry out the work at the Southern North Sea site, the UK’s largest-producing gas field.
Meanwhile data processors will review the information from Fugro’s new Remote Operations Centre (ROC) in Aberdeen, more than 600miles away.
Fugro’s workscope includes inspection of pipelines and umbilicals, spools and communication cables, and standard structural surveys of the platform and jackets.
The ROC will use new digital technology to interpret the data and feed it through to Neptune Energy in real time.
This speeds up the process, while reducing the number of people required on board the Edda Sun support vessel, who need to socially distance due to Covid-19, the operator said.
Neptune’s director for operations for the UK, Mungo McLeish, said: “Across our geographically-diverse portfolio, we’re using digital technologies to enhance the safety and efficiency of our operations.
“Fugro’s use of their ROC is a strong example of the benefits to both operators and service partners of employing such technologies.
“Through remote monitoring, the team will have access to all available data and will reduce the logistical challenges of managing personnel on the vessel offshore.”
Cygnus lies around 95miles off the Lincolnshire coast and typically exports over 250million standard cubic feet of gas per day, contributing six percent of UK demand.
Karl Daly, Fugro’s director for Inspection, Repair and Maintenance services in Europe, said: “We’re delighted to continue our working relationship with Neptune. Fugro has worked at Cygnus for the past five years and will be utilising our ROC to provide high quality survey and inspection services, while reducing the number of personnel required offshore.
“Our in-house IRM expertise and technologies allow us to provide market-leading remote solutions, which are critical to our clients during this time.”
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