Fugro’s largest USV going on seabed mapping duty in North Sea

Dutch geo-data specialist Fugro is sending an uncrewed surface vessel (USV), said to be the largest one in its fleet, on a seabed data acquisition mission in the North Sea, which will enable Norway’s MAREANO seabed mapping program to tuck a new milestone under its belt with its first USV technology foray.

A contract with the Norwegian Hydrographic Service (NHS) will see Fugro deploy its new 18-meter Blue Eclipse USV to support the 2025 MAREANO seabed mapping program to advance the move towards lower carbon emissions in seabed mapping while ensuring high-quality data acquisition for what is perceived to be the responsible management and preservation of Norway’s marine resources.

Nick Simmons, Fugro’s USV Services Director, highlighted: “This award marks a significant milestone for Fugro and the commercial debut of our advanced Blue Eclipse USV. The NHS’s decision, following a thorough evaluation process, highlights our technical capabilities, operational strategy, and commitment to knowledge sharing. We are confident that the Blue Eclipse and our expert team will deliver high-quality results for this important environmental mapping programme.”

Using up to 90% less fuel consumption compared to traditional vessels and equipped with advanced high-resolution, high-density multibeam echo sounders and sub-bottom data acquisition systems, this USV will survey over 675 square kilometers in the North Sea, where water depths range from 90 to 250 meters.

Helge Welde, Chief Engineer at the Norwegian Mapping Authority, Hydrographic Service, emphasized: “The MAREANO programme wants to accelerate the shift towards lower carbon emissions in seabed mapping. Use of USVs is one way to achieve this goal. Experiences from this year’s seabed mapping with USV technology will give us direction for opportunities in future surveys.”

Furthermore, it is believed that the USV’s long endurance and real-time data transfer capabilities will ensure efficient operations and reduce potential delays in the challenging North Sea environment. These factors are deemed crucial for the success of the MAREANO program, which Fugro has been supporting since 2006, having acquired over 147,000 square kilometers of data to date.

Thanks to the most recent MAREANO assignment, the Dutch giant explains that its Blue Eclipse USV, controlled remotely from the firm’s remote operations center in Aberdeen, will gather comprehensive datasets, encompassing bathymetry, water column data, acoustic backscatter data, and sub-bottom profiler data to understand the seabed’s topography and geology.

Fugro has secured multiple new jobs over the past few months, including survey work for Equinor’s oil project off the coast of Newfoundland and Labrador and geophysical and geotechnical survey assignments, together with TGS, for the eastern array of proposed offshore wind farms in the UK.

Given the Dutch player’s focus on decarbonizing its vessel fleet by switching to low-carbon fuels, the firm recently came aboard the Methanol Institute (MI), a global trade association for the methanol industry.