ABS approves SBM Offshore’s AI-powered mooring solution

Dutch FPSO provider SBM Offshore has reached a new milestone in its digital transformation program as ABS has issued New Technology Qualification (NTQ) to its artificial intelligence-powered Intelligent Agent Mooring Line Integrity Tool, allowing the technology to be integrated into offshore systems for the first time.

This tool is built on SBM Offshore’s mooring expertise and FPSO lifecycle management, combined with the advancement in machine learning capabilities. It enables the detection of a potential mooring line failure and its location, without relying on a traditional mooring tension monitoring system, SBM Offshore explained on Thursday.

SBM Offshore’s operating experience, standardized design through its Fast4Forward program, and a strong data management program, put SBM Offshore in a unique position to unlock significant value through the development of Intelligent Agents.

Oivind Tangen, Managing Director Operations of SBM Offshore, commented: “This achievement is only one example of how SBM Offshore is using digitalization to make meaningful shifts in offshore operations, making them safer, more reliable and more efficient. It is just the beginning of the application of machine learning in our offshore operations. We target the development of intelligent agents into areas where it is challenging to create value from operational data through traditional analytics”.

Séverine Baudic, Managing Director New Energies and Services of SBM Offshore, commented: “Our machine learning capabilities are developing fast, in an agile work environment. We expect a lot to follow through our collaboration with our strategic partner FieldBox.ai. The ultimate objective is to deliver more value to all our clients including the ones in the floating offshore wind market. This development is part of a wider ambition to expand our activities by offering digital services to the offshore energy market”.

This new milestone follows the opening of the company’s first Operational Intelligence and Performance Optimization Center (OIPOC) in 2018 and the offshore testing and deployment in 2019 of intelligent agents, advancing SBM Offshore’s machine learning capabilities.

The artificial intelligence and machine learning developments are executed in partnership with FieldBox.ai, a digital native organization bringing reliable Industrial Operations AI to scale.

One of SBM Offshore’s newbuild FPSO hulls, based on the Fast4Ward design, has recently been launched in a Chinese shipyard.