UTEC Invests in New Equipment for South China Sea Project

One of the world’s largest independent survey companies – UTEC Survey – has announced significant investment in new equipment which is about to be put to work in the South China Sea.

UTEC Geomarine –a part of the UTEC Group of companies – has announced the purchase of a comprehensively instrumented DB-240 metocean buoy as part of a construction support solution monitoring project in the region.

The equipment has been manufactured by Planet Ocean and is an upgraded version of the basic buoy model which comes with 12 x 20W solar panels and two rechargeable batteries. In addition, the company has also purchased a 150kHz QuarterMaster ADCP manufactured by Teledyne RDI. It is rated to 1500m water depth and can measure current profiles spanning 300m of the water column.

The investment gives UTEC the capability to deploy instruments with high power demands indefinitely without risking running down the internal instrument batteries and give the ability to use the buoy for specialist applications.

Commenting on the South China Sea project, Rachel Pedrick, Metocean Manager explained: “The ADCP is mounted underneath the buoy looking downwards. It will be configured to record a current profile every two minutes. This current data will then be transmitted via Iridium satellite telemetry to the work vessel to give them real-time warning of soliton approach.

“Our company prides itself on providing a winning mix of people, performance, excellence and ethics and offering equipment of the highest caliber is a critical element in ensuring the success of any project.”

UTEC provides a wide range of survey services including offshore positioning and construction support, geophysical, metocean and AUV surveys, geotechnical investigations and consulting services to the oil, gas and energy industries. In addition UTEC offers dimensional control surveys, laser scanning, 3D modeling and the iSITE™ asset management software. UTEC has offices located around the world including: Australia, Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Italy, Singapore, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States.

UTEC exhibited at the recent Oceanology event in London, England and is attending SPAR International 2014 in Colorado, USA from April 14th to 17th. The company will be present at booth #324.

Press Release, April 15, 2014; Image: UTEC