Engineering and construction firm, Subsea7 has successfully operated a remotely operated vehicle from Scotland to carry out repair work 9,400 km away in Brazil.
The work, which included pipeline inspection and light intervention tasks, was part of an ongoing contract to provide inspection, repair and maintenance services for Brazil’s state-owned Petrobras.
“This was a major milestone for Subsea7,” said Alan Gray, ROV and Autonomy manager. “The maturity of our remote piloting systems has been demonstrated here and shows how new technologies alongside new ways of working, can lead to more sustainable operations.
“Subsea7 has deployed remote piloting systems on ROVs in the North Sea region, but this demonstration was our first remote piloting operation conducted for Brazil.”
The project involved a remote piloting upgrade of the work-class ROV system on board an ROV support vessel. Real-time remote control was achieved via a secure, high-speed communications link to Subsea7’s Aberdeen onshore control centre. Subsea7 also has two onshore control centres in Stavanger, Norway.
“This project is an example of our ongoing collaboration with Subsea7, with the successful remote piloting trials delivering a high quality of operations across a variety of IRM activities,” said a spokesperson for Petrobas.
