Page 56: of Marine Technology Magazine (April 2016)

Pipeline Monitoring

Track that Pipe!

Pipeline monitoring and tracking is big business. These technologies promise to make the process less laborious and increasingly accurate.

IKM Subsea last year won an interest- Leopard for Pipeline Work amount of additional equipment is in- ing contract from Norske Shell which Operators are ? nding the Saab Sea- stalled.

commenced last month. To ful? ll its eye’s Leopard ROV ideal for pipeline For crucial and demanding tasks such mission, the Merlin UCV ROV is suc- survey and inspection work. as detailed inspection or tooling opera- cessfully integrated to the Siem Pride. The Leopard, with its combination of tions, an option available through the

In addition to the ROV service, IKM 11 thrusters and advanced control and iCON control system is an ability to au-

Subsea provides IMR related engineer- technology, is designed to handle a full tomatically keep station, which allows ing, maintenance of Norske Shell’s tool pipeline survey spread and stay steady the operators to concentrate on the task pool, as well as handling survey through on task. Recently it spent two continu- at hand – thus reducing their workload. business partner iSurvey. The scope of ous months with operator CCC Under- With iCON the Leopard effectively work this year includes inspections on water Engineering (Abu Dhabi) work- thinks for itself, providing the operator

Norske Shell’s deepwater ? eld Ormen ing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with more information about the status

Lange and Draugen, including pipeline often in 40ºC heat, on a 570 km pipeline of the vehicle and the environment in surveys, structure inspections, wellhead inspection project. which it is operating.

inspections, and AMT recovery. Having experienced the collective iCON also manages redundancy by

Dedicated to the project is the Merlin capability of the Leopard’s new iCON isolating a problem in the water and

UCV, an ultra-compact work class ROV control architecture and its ? exibility ? nding ways to keep the vehicle work- customized for IMR and drill support. and tooling options, CCC concluded ing. The operator also gets greater in-

The Merlin UCV represents a fully elec- that the Leopard had a “work class way formation to make maintenance simpler trical ROV system using a seven thruster of thinking.” and quicker, along with remote internet propulsion system con? gured to provide Operators like that the Leopard can not access for upgrades and support. excellent thrust and lifting capability ra- only take larger tools and survey equip- Equipment changes are also easier, as tio due to the compact size. Due to these ment than is usual for an electric ROV, distributed intelligence and building- factors, it’s estimated less time to per- but its third vertical thruster amongst the block simplicity avoids the need to par- form scope of work compared to con- 11 on board, gives it an ability to remain tially dismantle the ROV to reach a cen- ventional hydraulic ROVs. stable in ? ight even when a signi? cant tral electronic heart.

IKM Subsea Work class ROV, Merlin UCV. Saab Seaeye Leopard

Saab Seaeye

IKM

April 2016

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