The GFA spans a 5-year period, encompassing all countries where Shell is currently active or plans to operate in the future. Services governed by the GFA include the Armada fleet of uncrewed and lean-crewed vessels. Designed for today’s tasks but with tomorrows in mind, the fleet of exceptionally fuel-efficient vessels only utilise a skeleton crew onboard, with data processing and payload control conducted from onshore Operations Centres. In due course they will be capable of working with no personnel offshore whilst also consuming solely renewable fuel such as ammonia.

With a history dating back to Ocean Infinity’s inception, the partnership with Shell has evolved into a robust collaboration based on a shared vision for transformative ways of working. The journey began with a groundbreaking project in Mauritania, simultaneously utilising a fleet of Unmanned Surface Vehicles (USVs), marking the inception of surface robotics working in the oil and gas sector.

“This agreement enables new, lean-crewed vessels into high-value field work. Using our robotic fleet to service global offshore energy activities will power the maritime industry’s transformation into safer, more efficient new ways of working. It also solidifies a long-standing and valued collaboration between Shell and Ocean Infinity. Working through framework agreements like this allows us to achieve shorter lead-times, reduce risks, improve strategic alignment together with flexibility and scalability, work faster and ultimately supply our partners with their data more quickly. It enables us to optimise resources, making for more efficient and sustainable operations, such as by positioning our fleet more effectively to reduce transit times to and from work sites,” commented Katya Krylova, VP Business Development at Ocean Infinity.

Ocean Infinity, renowned for its groundbreaking ocean exploration and marine robotics solutions, is set to transform maritime operations across sectors including government, telecommunications, energy, and science and research. The international company believes that robotic technology is the key to safer and more environmentally responsible operations at sea.

David Field, Ocean Infinity’s Managing Director in Australia and New Zealand said: “This new Operations Centre in Tasmania will give us a more established infrastructure to deliver hydrography services for the Government and of course also provide capacity to take on more work in this high growth region. Ocean Infinity has already demonstrated that the use of robotics can make for more sustainable operations in Australian waters. In a recent data project for the Government, our robotic vessels collected 58% of the total data but contributed just 4% of the total fuel co2 emissions.”

The Australian Operations Centre is only the latest step in a worldwide roll-out, with centres already operational in the UK and Sweden, and planned for Singapore and another Asian location yet to be announced. Ocean Infinity will soon embark on the search for suitable premises in Hobart.

Ocean Infinity plans to operate the first in its fleet of 36m Armada ships from the Australian Operations Centre. These ships are ideally suited to large-scale hydrography work, enabling the work to be conducted with fewer people at sea and with far fewer emissions than a conventional ship.

Premier and Minister for State Development, Trade and the Antarctic, Jeremy Rockliff, said: “Ocean Infinity’s decision to establish its robotic ship Operations Centre in Hobart highlights the state’s strong economy and growing prominence as a hub for maritime innovation.

“Ocean Infinity’s establishment will deliver up to 50 new full-time jobs, providing highly skilled positions in the maritime and technology sectors, strategically aligning with Tasmania’s competitive advantages.

Minister for Advanced Manufacturing and Defence Industries and Minister for Science and Technology, Madeleine Ogilvie, highlighted that Tasmania’s innovative and rich maritime, science, and technology sectors make it the perfect home for Ocean Infinity, who are already an established provider of hydrographic ocean science services to the government.

Minister Ogilvie said “Ocean Infinity’s innovative approach and deployment of cutting-edge technology, like their substantial fleet of autonomous underwater vehicles, one of the largest in the world, have earned it a distinguished reputation in ocean exploration, marine robotics, and beyond.

“The company’s commitment to transitioning its operations toward onshore Operations Centres which oversee the robotic vessel-based work marks a significant step in maritime innovation.

“Ocean Infinity’s substantial robotic vessel fleet, including the recently commissioned 78-metre lean-crewed ships, underscores their ambition to lead global robotic shipping operations.

“Not only does Ocean Infinity’s establishment strengthen Tasmania’s maritime and technology sectors, it provides further opportunities for collaboration with our internationally renowned Australian Maritime College.”

Pioneering exploratory geotechnical surveys for the construction of offshore wind farm Ossian have recently been completed, with involvement from Ocean Infinity’s newly developed device, the ‘Infinity CPT 250’. The Ossian wind farm is a joint venture between SSE Renewables, Marubeni and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP); it will cover 858km2 of seabed, off the east coast of Scotland and will have the potential to produce up to 3.6 gigawatts (GW) of energy, enough to power up to six million homes. Once completed, Ossian will be one of the largest floating offshore wind farms in the world.  

Since spring of this year, we’ve supported with the detailed geotechnical surveys to assess the engineering properties of the seabed across the expansive site. Our scope included:

• 90 seabed cone penetration tests (CPT) 
• 45 seabed seismic cone penetration tests  
• 20 vibrocores

Deep push seabed CPTs were carried out remotely in a significant industry first operation of its kind. ‘Over-the-horizon’ commands were sent via a remote-control system, which directed the successful operations of the Infinity CPT 250. This milestone represents a huge step towards remote geotechnical operations, and our goal of evolving offshore operations towards a safer and greener maritime future, which underpins our wider mission at Ocean Infinity.

Our expansion into geotechnical work and more specifically the project to get our Infinity CPT 250 commissioned and commercialised began a little over a year ago. In a short period of time our inhouse team of geotechnical engineers worked alongside manufacturers to bring our vision, which at that point only existed on paper, to reality.

Following a period of commissioning and successful data quality testing, we set to work for the Ossian group on what became the maiden project for the Infinity CPT 250. The project began well and the data quality was good.

As with anything that drives the forefront of transformation, and the general nature of a company like Ocean Infinity, this project was not without its challenges.

The operation of this equipment, particularly using ‘over-the-horizon’ commands on some of the pushes, was a first for all involved. Working with the Ossian group created the opportunity for us to test the capability of our technology, which will ultimately unlock more efficient operations supporting offshore wind farm infrastructure and design.  

There were a huge number of lessons learnt, and as is the nature of this industry, there will continue to be; consistent evaluation and improvements are a huge part of working towards our overarching mission to create and use innovative technology.

Into next year we will begin integrating our geotechnical equipment onto our newly commissioned ‘Armada’ robotic lean-crewed ships to bring to the fore even more benefits of tech enabled operations.

On March 31^st 2017, during a trip from Brazil to China, the crew onboard Stellar Daisy released distress signals, reporting that the ship was rapidly taking on water and tilting heavily to one side. Radio contact dropped minutes later and Stellar Daisy became the largest ship by gross tonnage to be lost at sea. Sadly, of the 24 crew, only two survived and were rescued from life rafts the next day by a passing cargo ship.  

After tireless campaigning by the missing seafarers’ families, in August 2018, the South Korean government approved funding for the search and retrieval of Stellar Daisy’s voyage data recorder – the equivalent of an airplane’s black box. They contracted Ocean Infinity to carry out the operations and on the 14^th of February 2019 our team arrived at the search area off the coast of Uruguay onboard Seabed Constructor. 

Just 72 hours later, our fleet of four AUVs had explored around 1,300 kilometres squared of seabed. Approximately 1,800 nautical miles due west of Cape Town, recovered side scan sonar data indicated an area of disturbed sediment, which was suspected to be the wreckage site. ROV dives then provided positive visual identification of Stellar Daisy, 3,461 metres below the surface. The voyage data recorder was retrieved and further inspections of the impact area, debris and human remains took place over the following days to aid ongoing investigations and shed light on exactly what caused the vessel to sink. 

Patrick Bell joined Ocean Infinity as a Chartered Offshore Surveyor in early 2017 and was the Offshore Manager during the search for Stellar Daisy. He explained, “The search itself, like many others, came with its challenges. There were three very different dynamics onboard Seabed Constructor – our crew, the family representatives and the government officials – each with their own priorities and wishes. Our team dealt with this tremendously, by maintaining a professional tone throughout the operations, and catering compassionately to all parties’ needs. When we located the wreckage of Stellar Daisy, it was quite shocking to see the destruction. As the vessel had sunk at such a speed, most of it was unrecognisable, apart from the bridge area. These visuals were difficult for everyone onboard to witness and digest. That’s why it’s always important for crew members to seek support should they need to after projects like this.” 

Patrick continued, “Stellar Daisy was significant in Ocean Infinity’s history because it represented the transition from us being a secondary company for search and salvage operations to number one. Off the back of successfully locating the San Juan submarine, this was the project when we became first choice, and we lived up to this expectation.” 

This project highlights that common themes have run through the business since the very beginning. In 2019, our state-of-the-art technology and talented team meant we were able to search the seabed for Stellar Daisy with unprecedented speed and accuracy. Family representatives of the missing crew were onboard throughout the operations and provided with answers about their lost loved ones. The values demonstrated during this project have not waivered four years on and run parallel to those we see in our operations today.  

Dan is a strong addition to the Board having had a long standing career as a technology leader in the energy and natural resources industries, including as Vice President of Engineering at bp. In his current role as Deputy Group Chief Scientist at Rio Tinto, he is leading the company in leveraging science, technology and innovation to drive sustainable mineral sourcing. While at bp, Dan also established and led the emerging and disruptive technology unit and led the team that created the company’s net zero carbon ambition and strategy in 2020. Dan has spent his career in pursuit of tackling complex challenges and has a wealth of experience driving transformational change.

Dan’s appointment sees the Board of Directors grow to 4 members which includes Ross Hyett as Chairman of the Board, Ollie Plunkett and Peter Forhaug.

About the Ocean Infinity Board of Directors

Ross Hyett is a finance and investments professional and has been involved in Ocean Infinity since the beginning. His career has seen him involved in a variety of commercial interests including marine search and salvage. In addition to his financial services career, he also enjoyed a successful motor racing career having twice completed, both times on the podium, the 24 Heures du Mans at Le Mans.

Ollie Plunkett is Ocean Infinity’s CEO – a role in which he’s overseen the growth of the business from its inception to becoming a world-leading seabed data and technology business. Ollie is a trained Barrister who prior to joining Ocean Infinity had a career in financial services with a brief interlude, early in his working life, in the criminal law.

Peter Forhaug is a financial and strategic business development expert, with a professional background as a CFO and Investment Director for public companies. Peter was once CEO for one of Scandinavia’s largest Biogas producers. He currently supports several companies in the capacity as chairman or board member and once served as interim CEO for marine survey business MMT before its acquisition by Ocean Infinity.

Dan Walker, the latest addition to the board, has held senior leadership roles across the energy industry, including Vice president of engineering at bp. Outside of the energy industry, Dan has pursued post-doctoral research in fluid and structural dynamics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and held a lectureship in Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. Dan is a chartered mechanical engineer and a Fellow of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

The first of eight highly advanced, 78-meter vessels will be the first of their kind, enabling Ocean Infinity to perform tech-enabled lean-crewed operations for a safer and greener maritime future. They represent a giant leap forward for the maritime industry.

In partnership with Ocean Infinity, VARD has designed a unique, multi-purpose platform that will allow for onshore remote-controlled, lean-crewed and eventually uncrewed operations. 

The ships will be made ready for future environmentally responsible fuels and renewable energy sources.

On delivery, they will accommodate a lean crew and use hybrid solutions that are designed to evolve through various stages of future fuels implementation to ensure they remain at the forefront of low-emission performance to minimize environmental impact of operations.

VARD Electro is equipping the ships with advanced marine electronics for remote operations from its SeaQ product range, while VARD Accommodation is providing the efficient accommodation solution. 

Additionally, VARD’s daughter company, Seaonics, is delivering modular launch and recovery systems for moonpool that can be adapted to various marine operations in support of Ocean Infinity’s growing work in offshore renewables.

Ocean Infinity has taken the delivery of the first ship, which is expected to go into service on offshore data acquisition tasks in the coming months following its final installation work. This milestone marks the beginning of a new phase for Ocean Infinity, which has been pioneering the use of robotics to collect subsea data at scale with minimal environmental impact since 2016.

Take a look at some of the photos of the Armada 7801 arrival in Norway:

Designed for today’s tasks but with tomorrow’s in mind, these exceptionally fuel-efficient, onshore-controlled ships will initially only utilise a skeleton crew onboard.  In due course, they will be capable of working with no personnel offshore whilst also consuming solely renewable fuel such as ammonia.

The ship currently undergoing trials is part of the 78m class of Armada ships being designed and built by VARD, the international shipbuilding group headquartered in Norway. Following the on-schedule delivery of the ship, it will soon begin a transit to Norway where it will undergo fit out of its remote system. It will then begin integration with Ocean Infinity’s Remote Control Centre to enable lean-crewed operations for a range of maritime tasks, initially supporting offshore energy.

Watch the video for more information on Armada and the progress so far in bringing this robotic fleet to life.

During a trial period ran in June 2022, we had a vessel mobilised in Sweden collecting hydrographic and geophysical data. The data collected was streamed, via a satellite link, to our Remote Control Centre (RCC) in Southampton, UK.

From the RCC, the operator had direct data feedback and full control of all onboard payload sensors.

These exercises demonstrated the achievement of an important milestone towards the readiness for full remote survey operations.

This ship is the first of 23, innovative low-emission vessels, set to transform operations at sea.

Announced in November 2020, these optionally-crewed robotic vessels are set to spearhead the marine industry’s movement to carbon neutral operations.

Designed for today’s tasks but with tomorrow’s in mind, these exceptionally fuel-efficient, onshore-controlled vessels will initially only utilise a skeleton crew onboard.  In due course they will be capable of working with no personnel offshore whilst also consuming solely renewable fuel such as ammonia.