Page 8: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2016)

Voices

BG Group & the

FlatFish AUV

T e development of AUVs capable of being launched from FPSOs or actu- ally being docked at the seaf oor next to the subsea systems has been an industry goal for some years and of- fers a solution to two major problems: making deepwater subsea inspection become a simple task and decreasing the related costs. MTR’s correspondent in Brazil spoke to Rosane Zagatti, BG

Group’s Subsea Technology Manager, about its FlatFish AUV project, which promises to bring solutions to deep- water infrastructure inspection chal- lenges.

By Claudio Paschoa

Image: BG GroupImage: BG Group ubsea systems are now an integral part of off- support vessels with day rates hovering between $100k and shore oil production and vital to deepwater pro- $200 k. Therefore, the cost of continuously inspecting subsea duction. In deepwater developments, ROVs may infrastructure can heavily impact an operator’s OPEX. The be involved in both inspection and intervention FlatFish project concept was created by BG Brasil, a subsid- services, with some operators using traditional iary of Shell, with DFKI, SENAI-Cimatec and EMBRAPII as

AUVs for pipeline inspection, both requiring partners in the project. The prototype, currently in sea trials,

S November/December 2016 8 MTR

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