Abstract
In 2023 the world first resident underwater intervention drone (UID) had been operational for more than 5 months continuously, unlocking a revolutionary "vessel-free" way of conducting inspections and light intervention. A year later, the same drone is continuing its pioneering experience, introducing novel features and advanced capabilities. A comprehensive description of offshore operations and technological lesson learnt will be shared within this paper.
Further to the first long-term resident campaign (see Cavallini, 2024, for details), the UID has been maintained and prepared for the second offshore campaign, in which the drone has been called to demonstrate not only the subsea resident capabilities, but also its ability to expand the range of tasks to be carried out while working at depth on a producing field. In this regard, the collaborative one-team approach between Equinor and Saipem has allowed the introduction and execution of novel tasks, gradually increasing the complexity and the intensity of the UID daily activities, in a series of industry first.
The ambition of this paper is to share with the subsea energy community the remarkable operational results achieved by the UID while performing inspections and light intervention tasks at the Njord field, offshore Norway. By doing so, the authors will describe how daily activities are controlled from the onshore control station and executed in a full vessel-free configuration. This unique operational condition allows to constantly save not only costs but also fuel with associated emissions when compared to conventional vessel-based solution. Furthermore, a quantification of these savings will be provided together with concrete examples of how autonomous missions are compiled and executed by the drone, thus allowing the "hands-off" mode for the drone operators controlling and supervising the operations from remote.
The Hydrone-R ongoing project is a unique example of how the implementation of novel technology can contribute to the future of offshore energy production and transportation: derisking offshore operations while allowing constant presence at the field for immediate intervention or troubleshooting are paramount objectives when considering the criticality of implementing sustainable ways to safely produce essential energy resources.
