Equinor is just one of our many customers using underwater drones for conducting frequent inspections themselves, which enables them to hire external help when there is a job to be done. That cut operational costs dramatically, as they can reduce the use of large ships and ROVs. The Adresseavisa article also states that Equinor has hunted costs for a long time. When the prices are high, the potential for savings is as well.
"We are continuously working with enhancements, and this case is one that we are really proud of." Says Terje Moum, Production Manager for the Kristin-field at Haltenbanken in the Norwegian Sea.
Blueye is proud to assist in cutting massive costs while at the same time contributing to make the oil-industry a bit greener by reducing the use of large vessels.
The underwater drone's camera provides ultra-sharp images transferred to a tablet or a mobile device. At the same time, it is possible to share the inspection with a remote team at shore via Microsoft Teams. This feature makes it possible to discuss the drone footage live in a meeting during the inspection, even if some team members are not physically present. The platform manager at Kristin, Narve Aske, says that the underwater drone does an excellent job, providing sharp and detailed videos that document the marine growth status. Marine growth, or fouling, is a well-known problem for anyone with a boat or some structure under the water, and when it cumulates at certain places, it can cause a hazard for the platform safety.
"Equinor saves one million NOK, every time we can spare the hire of a big offshore vessel for these types of inspections." Says Aske to Adressa.
Now it is the state of the marine growth that will trigger when necessary to hire a vessel to clean.
The Engineering magazine, Teknisk Ukeblad also published an article about Blueye and Equinor. In this article, you can read about the challenges Equinor had when they first tried to inspect the seawater intake from the surface in a service boat. The waves gave too large motions and the drone got hard to control when the ship was drifting. Equinor then contacted Blueye and got valuable training and advice that made them succeed on their next attempt. Together we figured out that the best solution was to perform the inspection standing on the platform. We lowered the underwater drone from the lifeboat deck at Kristin with a pulley mounted in the ceiling. That made it easier to drop the drone about 20 meters down to the sea surface sea surface.
Big thanks to Equinor that wanted to share this story with us. We are proud that our product can help save costs in this challenging time.
