Fugro USV Project Team Wins Energy Industry Game Changer Award

Fugro’s Blue Essence uncrewed surface vessel (USV) has been awarded the Energy Industry Game Changer Award at the 2021 Energy Club WA Award, an initiative of the Australian Institute of Energy (AIE).

The award is presented to an individual or team who have made an outstanding contribution to the energy industry resulting in significant advancement of the industry’s knowledge and capability.

The Fugro and Woodside teams were presented with the award following the successful completion of the first entirely remote inspection project on 125 km of Woodside's gas trunklines, utilising the new Blue Essence 12 m USV, Fugro Maali in 2021.

Fugro’s USV offers a unique solution for subsea inspection that requires no offshore crew and demonstrates the many benefits of remote operations such as a reduction in CO₂ emissions by up to 97% when compared to a traditional vessel solution, and the ability to remove personnel from high-risk environments. The USV and e-ROV conducted successful over-the-horizon operations during the project, further demonstrating the capabilities of this technology.

Paul Mullins, Director of Remote Operations for APAC said: “Fugro’s USVs and remote operations are changing the way the industry carries out subsea inspection operations and over the coming year the team will be pushing the boundaries on additional USV capabilities.”