Oceaneering announces that its Subsea Robotics segment has achieved a new milestone, successfully completing its first onshore piloting of a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) from an onshore remote operation center (OROC) in Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

This important milestone was possible due to the partnership between Oceaneering and Petrobras, that worked together to ensure secure offshore connectivity for piloting of an ROV, utilizing the existing LTE coverage in the field and required a complex setup process to establish a bridge between the data networks of both companies, achieving low latency, without compromising their respective cyber security policies.

The Oceaneering team was tasked with several work scopes in water depths ranging from 5 m to 1100 m (16 ft to 3600 ft). The team performed tasks such as inspections and high-level activities such as hull inspections with cleaning and interventions. The work scope was carried out over 14 days in November 2023 onboard the CBO Manoella vessel. The Oceaneering team used the 220 hp heavy work class Millennium^® Plus ROV for the remote operations from land. The Brazilian team operated the vehicle on four different scopes with 100% uptime.

Oceaneering Onshore Remote Operations Center in Macaé, Brazil. (Image credit: Oceaneering)

Petrobras technical representatives were able to watch the integrated ROV and Survey operations carried out from our OROC in Macaé and provided positive feedback to the Oceaneering team.

“This project is a demonstration of Oceaneering’s leadership in the subsea robotics space deploying remote operations technology and executing value added projects in Brazil, helping our customers reduce carbon emission and safety exposure in their operations,” said Simao Silva, Brazil Country Manager. “Remote operations will help increase the safety of offshore operations a while increasing the efficiency and providing our customers with specialized services per scope.”