Shell and Ocean Infinity form seep hunting pact

Oil and gas major Shell has partnered with marine robotics firm Ocean Infinity to combine expertise and assets to execute multiclient seep hunting projects.

The companies believe that combination of Shell’s specialist seep hunting expertise and Ocean Infinity’s ‘Armada’ fleet of robotic ships, will provide effective location targeting and wide scale coverage.

According to Ocean Infinity, this will culminate in more reliable results, improving the focus of exploration work with fewer risks as well as environmental impacts.

Ocean Infinity’s Armada fleet, which will become operational next year, comes equipped with autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) offering deep-water coverage on a large scale.

Also, with zero people required at sea, Armada operations could potential become the safest as well as the most sustainable the industry has seen.

As previously reported, Norwegian firm Grovfjord Mek. Verksted (GMV) is in charge of constructing Ocean Infinity’s ultra-low emission fleet of robotic ships.

The first delivery should take place late this year, and the rest of the deliveries in the period 2021-2023.

Katya Krylova, VP business development Oil & Gas Exploration Services, Ocean Infinity, said:

“The deployment of the Armada fleet will mark a major technological advance in the industry and redefine traditional ways of working. Refining our ability to conduct tasks such as seep hunting using uncrewed technology opens up possibilities in so many other areas; the experience gained as a result of this collaboration could prove transferable to other offshore tasks such as carbon capture storage (CCS) monitoring.”