Woodside records world-first after completing an unmanned inspection of its North West Shelf

Woodside has recorded a world-first after it completed a fully unmanned inspection of its North West Shelf and Pluto trunklines. Using the Fugro Maali vehicle, Woodside inspected its subsea and pipeline infrastructure near Dampier in May. The 12m USV was remotely controlled from the company’s King Bay Supply Base in Karratha and Perth operations centre. Woodside operations executive vice-president Fiona Hick said the vessel was an example of how the company must manage its business to ensure it remains competitive in the future. “It’s a solution which generates significant savings but most importantly, it also reduces risk exposure by removing people from high-risk environments,” she said. “Plus, vessel emissions are significantly reduced compared with a traditional IMR vessel.” Subsea and pipelines production delivery manager Paul Ulyett said there was potential to expand Fugro Maali’s capability to complete small intervention scopes, such as valve operations and cleaning. “The target is to transition about 80 per cent of the annual IMR scope, including some light intervention work, to the uncrewed platform.,” he said. The vessel can be fitted with either a dedicated electric remotely operated vehicle or an autonomous underwater vehicle. The operation resulted in an emissions reduction of more than 95 per cent.