The use of unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) in the offshore oil and gas industry can bring multifaceted benefits to operators, by offering cost-effective and efficient ways of gathering critical real-time data for better decision-making as well as improving environmental and corporate governance.
USVs are employed to perform tasks such as surveillance, data collection, and tracking without the need for human intervention, and they can complete these tasks in high-risk environments, reducing the exposure of human personnel to potential threats.
An integral aspect of oil and gas operations is regular and comprehensive maintenance and inspections, especially on offshore platforms, but the high-risk nature of working offshore necessitates the development of increasingly safer inspection methods.
Oil and gas facilities can have hundreds of different assets, kilometres of piping, and thousands of connections points where leaks or other infrastructure failures can occur.
This includes substation and power distribution systems, which are traditionally expensive, hazardous and time consuming to inspect.
However, power distribution inspections are considered critical maintenance that when left unchecked can lead to serious incidents and ongoing downtime events.
USVs have several key applications in the oil and gas industry, including various detection, surveillance and inspection tasks for maintenance purposes; surveying; marine mammal observation; and environmental studies.
Being equipped with advanced sensors and data acquisition systems, USVs can facilitate real-time monitoring and promote transparency and accountability in data collection and reporting.
For example, using gas detection and thermal scanners they can significantly simplify the monitoring and maintenance of oil and gas pipelines.
They can also carry out the geophysical studies required to characterise drilling sites and perform equipment/pipeline inspections, as well as baseline environmental studies or ongoing monitoring of environmental variables before, during and after drilling activities.
USVs are more cost effective than crewed alternatives as the vessels can be smaller and one operator can control multiple vehicles, reducing personnel, insurance and danger pay.
Contemporary USVs can perform missions for more than 30 days of operation on a single tank of fuel, and they generate less underwater noise that may potentially harm marine life sensitive to acoustic disturbance.
They can also help reduce operational carbon emissions, as even diesel-hybrid versions of the technology still use a fraction of the diesel burned by crewed ships.
Along with reducing the risk of injury to offshore workers, USVs can free up human personnel for more specialised and safer jobs on land or aboard support vessels by taking over repetitive and potentially hazardous tasks.
Research published in All Sciences Proceedings last year noted that USVs had emerged as an invaluable tool for data collection, particularly in environmental monitoring and marine production policies.
The author added that technological advancements in USVs had played a pivotal role in their evolution.
He said: “Enhanced autonomy, sensor integration, and communication systems have enabled USVs to operate autonomously or in collaboration with manned vessels, expanding their capabilities and versatility.
“Moreover, improvements in navigation systems, obstacle avoidance mechanisms, and power management have significantly enhanced the reliability and endurance of USVs, allowing them to undertake extended missions with minimal human intervention.”
The technologies that have enabled the commercialisation of USVs include lithium-ion batteries, satellite communications, and advanced solar PV panels.
Importantly, the development of satellite communication systems like Iridium Certus and Starlink have enabled real-time control to the platform in any location around the world.
The global USV market was worth US$2.1 billion in 2022, according to a report by Emergen Research, and is expected to grow to US$3.38 billion (at a compound annual growth rate of 5 per cent) by 2032.
Nick Rozenauers, Oceans Manager at Ocius, told Petroleum Australia that as operators gained more trust in the platforms, USVs would become a staple part of the offshore industry, especially on the surveying and marine mammal observation front.
He said: “The driving reason behind the uptake of the vessels will be because of the markedly lower cost of data capture with a similar level of efficacy as crewed ships.”
As USVs are a new technology, governments and regulatory bodies are still coming up with standards for the commercial sector – in Australia, this is being conducted by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which expects the use of such systems, infrastructure and technologies to continue to increase in Australia.
The biggest challenge to developing USVs is ensuring they are able to operate reliably during the mission with no service personnel onboard.
For emerging technologies that will help overcome this challenge, Rozenauers pointed to the migration of survey software to Linux operating systems, as well as increased production and innovation in linear actuators and DC motors.
Looking ahead, prominent trends in the USV industry include the growing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and autonomous technologies, with USV manufacturers leveraging advanced AI algorithms for improved navigation, obstacle detection, and mission execution.
These emerging innovations will enhance the overall autonomy of USVs, allowing them to operate more efficiently in diverse environments and improving their adaptive responses to changing conditions.