Norwegian Big Shots Establish Remote Operations Partnership

The Norwegian Solstad Offshore, DeepOcean and Østensjø have teamed up to fast-track the adoption of remotely managed services with the aim of reducing operating costs and emissions for the offshore energy industry.

The companies have established two joint ventures (JVs) to support the remote operations drive, one to own and operate advanced onshore remote operations centres and the other to develop, own and operate unmanned surface vehicles (USVs).

According to the Norwegian trio, the aim of the partnership is to challenge the offshore energy industry needs in terms of efficiency and enable a sustainable green energy transition.

“Solstad, DeepOcean and Østensjø already have the technologies, competence and assets in place, but teaming up will further enhance the capacity, growth prospects and market penetration of our remote operations offering. Operators of offshore energy assets have challenged the supplier industry to deliver even more cost-efficient services. This is our response,” said Lars Peder Solstad, Solstad Offshore CEO.

The first JV, which owns a remote operations centre operational since 2019, is called Remota AS and will be led by Sveinung Soma.

It will offer remote operations and semi-autonomous maritime services to existing vessels, remote operations of remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and USVs. In addition, the company’s first remote operations centre will function as a control centre for drone technologies.

Today the centre operates DeepOcean’s ROVs from Haugesund, Norway.

The centre will operate independently of its three owners and will initially offer services to offshore shipping companies and ROV operators, but aims to expand its service offering to other industries.

In addition to the centre, the partners will establish USV AS, a separate company for investing in USVs equipped with a work-class ROV (WROV) onboard.

The USV technology has been developed by DeepOcean, while the two other partners have been involved in the final stage of the development.

The three partners will each own 33.33% of the two JVs.

“Remote operations are key to unlocking huge emission reductions and cost savings from the marine and offshore industries. The new joint ventures aim to fast-track the adoption of new remote technologies, which in turn will make ocean-based industries even more sustainable,” said Håvard Framnes, investment director of Østensjø.

Last year, DeepOcean and Solstad also entered into an alliance with Aker Solutions to combine their capabilities and expertise and form an integrated one-stop-shop provider for the offshore wind industry.

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