First contract in for Argeo’s new subsea vessel

Argeo has secured the first contract for its vessel Argeo Searcher and both SeaRaptor autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) which will see them deployed for ultra deep-water work in the North Atlantic.

Work is scheduled to commence directly after the vessel conversion is finished in January, with a duration of three to four weeks and an estimated completion in February.

According to Argeo, the project has a good possibility for extension further into the first quarter of 2023.

“This project requires the highest quality and detail and the requirement of ultra deep-water vehicles to get the job done and will take the SeaRaptor near to the very limits of its build specification and make use of all the high-quality sensors integrated into the vehicle,” said Argeo’s CEO Trond Crantz.

“We are very excited that our first subsea vessel, Argeo Searcher, fully equipped with both our high-tech SeaRaptors is going straight into commercial operations having completed a rigorous conversion and shakedown program beforehand.”

Argeo entered into a five-year bareboat contract for Argeo Searcher in October, with an option to purchase the vessel for $2 million after 12 months and $1 million after 27 months. The estimated delivery date is 10 December.

The vessel, formerly known as Ocean Pearl, will operate in the North and South America and West Africa energy markets and the Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic marine minerals market.

Argeo also recently secured a patent from the Norwegian Industrial Patent office (Patentstyret) for its subsea electromagnetic remote-sensing system. The patent protects the company’s exclusive services with the products Argeo Whisper and Argeo Discover.

Argeo Whisper is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) and remotely operated vehicle (ROV) system developed for localizing and tracking buried pipelines, and detecting unexploded ordinances (UXOs) and buried objects in a decommissioning survey.

Argeo Discover is an application for detecting, delineating, and characterizing deep sea mineral deposits or other conductive objects below the seafloor utilizing an electromagnetic source integrated into an AUV or ROV.

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