XOCEAN has successfully delivered ground-breaking projects for BP using their Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs)
Data Harvesting
During April, XOCEAN successfully completed a 5-day mission harvesting data from an array of Sonardyne subsea sensors. The USV was launched in Peterhead and then transited unaccompanied 128nm offshore to a BP site in the central North Sea.
Pipeline Survey
During May and June XOCEAN also performed two shallow water pipeline acoustic inspections off the coast of Scotland for BP. To achieve ultra-high definition, a dual head Multi-Beam Echo Sounder (MBES) configuration was adopted.
Craig Allinson, Survey and Positioning Lead, BP North Sea, said “BP was delighted to use this technology which helped to reduce operational risk and improve efficiency. We believe the ‘over the horizon’ operation of the USV is a first for our industry."
Data Validation in Real Time
During both projects, the USVs were piloted from XOCEAN’s control room in Ireland whilst the quality of data was monitored from shore in real-time by experts at locations around the UK.
XOCEAN have continued delivering data as part of the UK’s Civil Hydrography Programme (CHP), administered by the Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA). Most recently XOCEAN completed a further 500 hours of unmanned bathymetric survey off the coast of Great Yarmouth. This brings XOCEAN’s total survey time to over 2,500 hours in 2019.