Down Under within Reach: USV sets sail for Australia
An Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) is on its way from Europe to Australia to carry out inspection, maintenance and repair operations with new onboard monitoring technology.
Reach Subsea, which is based in Haugesund, Norway, said its Reach Remote 2 was on its way to the Scarborough gas field, owned by Woodside Energy, to perform reservoir monitoring with the company’s gWatch technology.
The technology is widely used across Norwegian gas fields, and measures time-lapse gravity and seabed deformation to detect small changes in reservoir mass and pressure, significantly reducing uncertainty in gas reserves and aquifer influx, says Reach Subsea.
“This project clearly demonstrates that the transition to a robotic future is not a vision — it’s happening now,” said Reach Subsea’s CEO Jostein Alendal. “We are reducing HSE risks by removing personnel from hazardous environments, reducing operational costs, and cutting the carbon footprint of offshore activities by up to 90%. It’s a major leap forward for the industry and a testament to what innovative technology can achieve.”
With today’s chronic shortage of seafarers, uncrewed vessels are very likely to become a common sight, with costs reduced as well as environmental impact.
The Reach Remote 2 is a sister vessel to the Reach Remote 1, which in March was jointly launched by Reach Subsea and Kongsberg Maritime, which supplies much of the onboard technology, such as the batteries, autonomy and remote control systems, electrics, positioning systems and the ROV launch and recovery system (LARS).
The vessels can sail for 30 days, are 23.9 metres long and are powered by two Volvo Penta D13 MH engines.
