Deep see

An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) system developed in the UK could help cut the time and money spent by the offshore industry on the inspection of deep water oil and gas pipes.

Developed by Heriot-Watt University spin-out company Seebyte, the Autotracker system carries out detailed, high-speed surveys of submerged equipment.

According to BP, which helped fund the project, it could partially replace traditional inspection techniques within three years.

As oil and gas companies reach ever-deeper areas of the ocean in the hunt for fossil fuels, inspection techniques that are effective on pipelines in shallower waters are increasingly found wanting.

These rely on sonar-based systems towed by ships and are used to build up a map of the ocean bed. According to Seebyte’s Dr Jonathan Evans, not only do such systems provide a low-resolution image of the oil pipeline, but the ‘bobbing’ forces encountered by the towing cable also create inaccuracies in the data.