Big Blue World
The Global Newsletter of the Society for Underwater Technology
Issue 4, June/July 2022
Contents
Big Blue World™
Editor: Emily Boddy
emily.boddy@sut.org
Contact Emily to submit an article,
send in Corporate Member news,
member updates and photos, or to
find out about advertising and
sponsorship opportunities in Big
Blue World™.
www.sut.org
facebook.com/SUT.org
linkedin.com/company/sutuk
buzzsprout.com/1000288
instagram.com/societyforunderwater
twitter.com/SUT_news
youtube.com/SUTMedia
Welcome from the CEO
Cheryl Burgess
New Corporate Members
Forthcoming Events
Publications UT2, Underwater
Robotics, MTS Journal
SUT+ News
Shruthi Sivadasan
OceanTech - Splash Zone Expertise
Tim Eley
Verlume - Intelligent Energy
Management
Richard Knox
SUT Member News
Balmoral
Dr Jan Mangal
XOCEAN
Proserv
Modus
RBR
Recent Event Reports
Gadgets & Widgets
Combined Naval Event
ECOSIGG Offshore Renewable
Innovation Competition
A Life Less Ordinary - Subsea
Inspection Operations
Carbon Capture & Sequestration:
Strategies, Plans and Equipment
Offshore Site Investigation &
Geotechnics (OSIG) South West
Geoforum 5
Lennard-Senior Prize at All-Energy
Next Issue
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Cheryl Burgess
Society for Underwater Technology
Welcome from the CEO
Welcome
Welcome to the SUT’s July newsletter. July marks the start of the
SUT member year. For those of us in the Northern Hemisphere
we are at the start of summer and for those SUT members in the
Southern Hemisphere, the winter season is beginning. Wherever
you are, I hope you will be in touch with Branches and Special
Interest Groups as the SUT’s calendar comes together for 2022-
2023. In addition to the webinars the SUT has developed during
the pandemic, we are pleased to see face-to-face meetings returning
to the calendar and becoming more frequent with conferences,
seminars, training and on-line meetings.
We are pleased to confrm that the Educational Support Fund will be
available to students in 2022-2023; with application submissions due
in by 30th July. We are creating the Bil Loth Memorial Grant as part
of the ESF for doctoral candidates. Find the fund here.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for joining or
renewing their SUT membership. Membership is the life-blood of
the Society. As the SUT organises and promotes events I urge you to
share the opportunity to present, attend, learn and network with your
colleagues and get involved. Find out more here.
Please contact us to share your views and news.
Cheryl Burgess, CEO
Welcome to our newest Corporate Members!
Click to �nd out how your organisation can join the SUT as a Corporate Member.
Welcome to our new Corporate Members
Big Blue World
Forthcoming Events & Dates for the Diary
Big Blue World
JULY 2022
SUT+ Webinar - The Green Lifecycle of
Decommissioning
21 July 2022
Webinar
SUT+ Site Visit - Fugro Remote
Operations Centre
27 July 2022
Aberdeen, UK
Call for Papers Deadline - 9th International
SUT OSIG Conference “Innovative
Geotechnologies for Energy Transition”
31 July 2022
AUGUST 2022
SUT US - Networking Event
4 August 2022
Houston, TX, US
Call for Papers Deadline - The Energy
Field of the Future
17 August 2022
Perth Evening Technical Meeting -
Collaborative Technology Deployment –
Julimar Development Phase 2 Project
17 August 2022
Parmelia Hilton, Perth, WA
SUT US Webinar - Marine Site
Characterization for Carbon
Sequestration Projects
4 August 2022
Webinar
For more information on SUT events go to
www.sut.org/events
Society for Underwater Technology
Publications
Forthcoming Events & Dates for the Diary
UT2/Underwater Robotics - The magazines of the SUT
Click to read the latest issues
Society for Underwater Technology
Te Marine Technology Society Journal is the
fagship publication of the Marine Technology
Society. It publishes the highest caliber, peer-
reviewed papers, six times a year, on subjects of
interest to the society: marine technology, ocean
science, marine policy, and education. Te Marine
Technology Society has published the MTS Journal
under its current title since 1969.
Click to read the latest issue.
Marine Technology Society
Journal (MTSJ)
Big Blue World
SUT+ News
SUT+
Things are moving fast in the industry right now and the SUT+ Aberdeen
branch is not slowing down either! 2022 has been electric so far and
we have seen continued growth in attendance to all of our events. The
committee really appreciate the support and are extremely glad that so
many can bene�t from the knowledge our events are helping to share.
SUT+ Chair Shruthi Sivadasan at Aberdeen
South Harbour
SUT+ Chair Shruthi Sivadasan at the
Balmoral Subsea Test Centre
Society for Underwater Technology
SUT+ News
We have had some great highlights over the last few months, including our site visit to the excellent
Balmoral Subsea Test Centre at the end of April. More recently, we held our ‘Insights Into Tesis
Preparation Event’ in hybrid format at Aberdeen University, with an outstanding 30+ students
joining us in person, and our visit to the Aberdeen South Harbour. Seeing engagement from all
experience levels in the industry at these events has been a great inspiration. Additionally, we
continue to release our successful SUT+ Newsletter and our following LinkedIn has expanded to
850+ followers!
We cannot wait to share with you what else we have in store for the rest of 2022. We will be visiting
Fugro’s Remote Operating Centre at the end of July and have many more exciting webinars on the
horizon! Make sure you follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with all of our future events here.
Visit to the Balmoral Subsea Test Centre
Visit to Aberdeen South Harbour
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Big Blue World
Innovation
For many years now, Oil &
Gas Operators and service
companies have been
performing routine Subsea
Interventions at depths of
100’s of meters and Well
Interventions, at depths of
1000’s of meters.
Yet, at modest depths, of only
minus a few meters just below
sea level, Operators & service
companies still struggle to
undertake work in the Splash
Zone! Wave action, Wind and
Tidal forces, can make Splash
Zone Intervention, where it
is difcult to deploy divers
or ROV equipment, one of
the most challenging areas to
perform routine maintenance,
mechanical work and
inspection.
OceanTech, a technology-
based service company based
in Trondheim in Norway, uses
innovative robotic equipment,
ROV tools, tooling, and
techniques, to perform high
quality solutions for Splash
Zone Interventions.
Te key to deploying the
OceanTech Tools is to fx
them to the structure above
and below sea level. Whether
that structure is a platform
jacket leg, a tubular, a riser,
or a conductor pipe, giving
a stable fxed platform, from
which to operate OceanTech’s
modifed Schilling Robotic
Arms and tooling, is the key
to successful operations. A lot
of the equipment used can be
standard ROV tools & tooling.
However, the methods used to
access and fx the equipment
into the Splash Zone are
generally engineered for each
application. For example, for
the side of a platform jacket,
OceanTech would
deploy a VAT -
Vertical Access
System, a rail that is
fxed to the platform
jacket, along which
you can drive the
Schilling Robotic
Arm & tooling into
the Splash Zone.
A similar system is
used for risers or conductors
where the vertical rail clamps
round the riser, conductor, or
tubular. In addition, a clamp
tool can be used round a riser
or conductor, to descend into
the Splash Zone - up and down
the riser or conductor itself.
One novel approach even used
the rig anchor chains to deploy
the robotic arm down the
side of the drilling rig into the
splash zone for work replacing
600 Kilogram anodes, above
the anchor chain fairlead
wheels at minus 15 meters.
Previous attempts by both
divers and ROV’s had failed
to successfully change out the
anodes.
Te access systems &
equipment to do this is
generally light weight and is
deployed from the platform
using special rigging
techniques and skilled
Tim Eley, OceanTech
OceanTech
Splash Zone Expertise
99
Society for Underwater Technology
OceanTech rope access
technicians. Tis means small
crews of 4-6 platform-based
personnel can do the work
which expensive Dive or ROV
vessels ofen struggle to do.
Once deployed into the splash
zone, OceanTech operations
can continue in up to 3m
signifcant wave height.
Most OceanTech work scopes
commonly start with some
type of cleaning, to remove
marine growth from - platform
legs, risers, and conductors
or more and more these days,
Wind Turbine foundations too.
OceanTech robotic tools are
controlled from a purpose-built
control cabin on the platform
or where space is at a premium,
by compact lap top computer
operating modular systems.
High pressure water jetting
techniques give excellent
surface cleaning to allow for a
wide range of inspections:
• GVI - General Visual
Inspection
• CVI - Close Visual
Inspection
• CP - Cathodic Protection
Measures - replacement of
Anodes
• UT - Ultrasonic thickness
Measurements
• PEC - Pulse Eddy Current
Tickness Measurements
(note - no need for cleaning
using this method)
• FGI - Field Gradient
Imaging - Crack Detection
One of OceanTech’s newest
systems, designed for a
Norwegian Operator, is an
Inspection Robot.
Te Robot can track and
follow 360 degree circular
nodal welds, where the
structural cross tubulars
meet platform legs. Tis is a
unique solution developed by
OceanTech to detect cracks
and measure their length and
depth using the Field Gradient
Imaging technique.
Te Inspection Robot can be
deployed, like all OceanTech
other tooling, through the
Splash Zone. However, the
Inspection Robot can also
be picked up by an ROV and
“piggy backed” or deployed to
much deeper depths using an
ROV as the “mother” vehicle.
Splash Zone work is not
just all about inspection.
OceanTech have completed
large mechanical scopes of
work ranging from, riser repair
and anode replacement, to the
installation of large new I & J
tubes on a platform jacket. Tis
work included the design, build
and installation of large subsea
clamps to fx the bottom of
the I & J tubes to the platform
jacket, at minus 16 meters. All
this work was accomplished
independently, by a platform
based OceanTech team, without
any support from Divers or
ROV vessels, resulting in big
savings for the Operator, of the
Northwest Continental shelf of
Australia.
Finally, for such an innovative
modern technology-based
service company, OceanTech’s
roots in Trondheim, are closely
linked by heritage to a bygone
period of history, dating from
World War II.
Based at Dora II in
Trondheim, OceanTech’s
current Subsea/Splash Zone
Test Centre and workshops
are housed in a large dry dock
which historically was an old
Submarine pen lef over from
another era.
Tese days the dry dock is a
magnifcent facility that allows
full scale mock-up and testing
of OceanTech’s Splash Zone
engineering solutions - wet
and dry! Full scale testing
and operations are rehearsed
many times over, long before
the engineering is deployed
ofshore in the Splash Zone.
Innovation
For further information
please contact the
Author:
Tim Eley -
Business Developer,
OceanTech - Aberdeen
+44 (0)7709 330150
www.oceantech.no
10
Innovation
Richard Knox, Verlume
Embracing the bene�ts
of intelligent energy
management for
the future of subsea
operations
Afer a two-year break, it
was fantastic to see the SUT
Aberdeen Branch Committee
hosting the Gadgets and
Widgets event once again. At
the evening event in April, I
was delighted to be a speaker
alongside a range of other
companies presenting the
very latest innovations for the
underwater sector.
Te focus of my presentation
was Verlume’s energy
management capabilities,
including the ground-
breaking Intelligent Energy
Management System (IEMS)
technology and applications.
For those of you who may
not be familiar, Verlume is an
expert in clean energy system
integration, intelligent energy
management and energy
storage technologies.
I would like to take this
opportunity to refect on why
the inclusion of intelligent
energy management into
subsea applications will
be crucial to the future of
underwater developments.
The Evolution of the
Offshore Industry
Tere is certainly a lot of
innovation in this space and
the evolution of the ofshore
industry, driven in particular
by the energy transition, is
presenting us with a unique
opportunity to embrace
novel and innovative power
generation, energy storage
and energy management
technologies.
As part of the energy
transition, we are collectively
looking for solutions to
decarbonise and promote the
use and integration of cleaner,
lower carbon energy to reach
net zero targets more quickly.
Trough the utilisation
of intelligent energy
management, we can facilitate
the integration of alternative
energy sources and operating
models whilst also mitigating
the impacts of intermittency of
supply or optimising existing
power supplies. For renewable
sources, from wave energy
to tidal energy, foating solar
farms and ofshore wind, an
energy management system
can act as the gateway between
a clean energy input to provide
secure energy delivery for
subsea projects and inspection,
repair and maintenance.
Te Intelligent Energy
Management System (IEMS)
developed by Verlume,
as mentioned above, is
power generation agnostic
meaning that the technology
can be adapted to suit any
renewable energy input and
can autonomously manage
consistent power delivery to
multiple ofshore payloads.
For example, the inclusion of
IEMS into distributed subsea
docking stations can enable
short and long-term residency
as well as lower carbon, safer
operations.
Autonomous Offshore
Power Systems:
A New Asset Class
One confguration that can be
adopted is the integration of
IEMS within Halo, Verlume’s
Big Blue World
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