Lower oil and natural gas prices are apparently not enough to dissuade some energy companies from continuing important research and development work.
Norway's Statoil SA, for one, is doing its part to advance subsea technology to reduce costs on two fronts: maintenance and inspection and drilling and production.
Statoil, in collaboration with Kongsberg Maritime, Norwegian University of Science & Technology (NTNU), and Inventas, has developed swimming, snake-like robots for subsea inspection and light intervention. NTNU spin-off company Eelume has recently signed an agreement with Kongsberg Maritime and Statoil to accelerate this new technology in hopes to reduce costs of both planned and on-demand site inspections, maintenance, and repairs.
Separately, Statoil launched a subsea concept that has gotten the operator closer to a "plug and play" model for drilling and production at the seafloor.
Live-in janitor snake
The slithering robot is an articulated autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) with hinged joints that make it undulate serpent-like through the water. The sea-snake AUV can be permanently installed at existing or new subsea production facilities, functioning as the site's "live-in janitor" of sorts.
The mechanical creature's body is a self-contained manipulatable arm that can swim on its own without being attached to a bulky remotely operated vehicle "body" to help maneuver it to where it needs to go to perform its work.
The Eelume robot's slender, flexible body provides operators access to confined areas that are difficult to access with existing technology. The robot snake's head is outfitted with lighted "eyes" for seeing in dark places and attachments such as clamps to use as its "hand."
The mechanical snake's work can include visual inspection, cleaning, and adjusting valves and chokes. "These jobs account for a large part of the total subsea inspection and intervention spend," Statoil said.
"With its thrusters, it can swim quite fast," said Eelume Chief Executive Officer Kristin Y. Pettersen. It can also "hover" just like one would see a living sea-snake do, she adds.
The main idea, say Statoil executives, is to let these robots do inspection and light intervention jobs on the seafloor, reducing the use of larger, more-expensive vessels.
The collaborative partnership of companies fosters the ideal environment to test and develop the snake robot, Statoil said.
"Eelume is founded by top academics from NTNU, Kongsberg Maritime brings in 25 years of experience and technology development within marine robotics, and Statoil provides access to real installations for testing and qualification," the companies said.
Subsea concept
Last month, Statoil launched a new subsea concept at the Barents Sea Conference in Hammerfest, Norway, called Cap-X.
Designed to reduce cost and increase efficiencies, Cap-X, said Margareth Ovrum, executive vice-president for technology, projects, and drilling, brings Statoil "one step closer to a 'plug and play' solution on the seabed."
Cap-X is a combination of existing and new technology. It is one-quarter the size of today's subsea templates and enables more operations from vessel instead of rig.
In particular, the technology increases the efficiency of horizontal drilling in shallow reservoirs, the company said.
The development of Cap-X was initiated in 2013 to increase commerciality of potential resources in the Barents Sea.
"We as explorers need to find resources that can be developed at a lower cost and with lower emissions. Cap-X can potentially have a significant impact on developing the resources in the Barents Sea and in other areas with shallow reservoirs", said Jez Averty, Statoil senior vice-president, exploration, Norway and UK cluster.