DEME Offshore and SABCA Form Drone O&M Pact

DEME Offshore has partnered with the aerospace industry supplier SABCA to develop and deploy unmanned vehicles to perform surveillance and inspection works in the offshore industry.

The companies are convinced that these technologies have a game-changing potential to increase health and safety of their employees, lower the impact on the environment in the O&M phase of a project, and reduce the overall costs of these operations.

”By adding drone services to our solutions we can provide detailed and highly accurate inspection data, while further increasing safety and reducing downtime and costs,” said Luc Vandenbulcke, CEO of DEME.

“More accurate data results in shorter response times, better availability and a higher electricity output. Also, as offshore wind turbines are getting bigger, the industry needs maintenance partners that can follow this trend.”

Moreover, in the future, it is expected that unmanned vehicles will continue to contribute significantly to lowering the Levelized Cost of Energy, the companies said.

“DEME’s understanding of marine technology and engineering expertise is uniquely complementary to SABCA’s drone developments for industrial applications in accordance with the highest safety and security aerospace standards. We believe this partnership helps to generate leading technology products and services for the offshore industry,” said Thibauld Jongen, CEO of the SABCA Group.