Dutch subsea and seismic specialist Fugro has ordered two uncrewed surface vessels (USVs) with UK firm SEA-KIT.
The two new USVs, which are the first of many planned builds for Fugro as part of a partnership with SEA-KIT, are bound for the Asia-Pacific region and the North Sea.
Ivar de Josselin de Jong, director remote inspection at Fugro, commented: “This order cements Fugro’s strategy to lead the development of remote and autonomous solutions, which is key to delivering a safer, more sustainable and more efficient approach to the construction and maintenance of marine assets. Integration of the new USVs into our global network of remote operation centres (ROCs) will allow us to provide our clients with an entirely remote-controlled inspection solution for the first time in history. In addition to applications in the oil and gas industry, we specifically foresee an important role for our new remote inspection solution in the rapidly growing offshore wind sector.”
The first vessel is scheduled for delivery to Fugro in Perth in the first quarter of 2020, and will be used to conduct uncrewed ROV pipeline inspections on Australia’s North West Shelf. The second is scheduled for delivery to Fugro in Aberdeen in the first quarter of 2021.
