The newest survey vessel from international hydrographic surveying services firm Fugro, the Fugro Venturer, is set to make its maiden voyage. Venturer is the newest evolution of Fugro’s Standard Survey Vessels (FSSV series) built specifically to meet multi-role geophysical survey standards.
Fugro’s announced last week that it will be partnering with Skyline to target the lucrative 3D city modelling market. However, the launch of Venturer and a recent contract with Papua New Guinea signify Fugro’s leading role in the hydrographic surveying side of the business.
Venturer’s maiden voyage will take her to the deep waters of Ireland’s Atlantic margin and the far North of the Barents Sea. Fugro’s range new Offshore Survey vessels (the FSSV 65 range) were developed in close cooperation with clients. As a leading criterion, they are the newest and most advanced offshore survey vessels in the world.
The 72-metre vessel is a platform for technological innovation, where Fugro’s trademark technologies such as OARS (centralised command centres with direct access to offshore survey projects), Back2Base (enabling large amounts of survey data to be sent from offshore vessels to onshore processing centres and clients) and ROAMES (a powerful asset management solution streamlining subsea operations) are radically changing information delivery.
Fugro has secured a significant confirmed work backlog so that a campaign of site and pipeline route surveys, for clients including Aker BP, following commissioning and survey trials. Fugro Venturer is contracted to conduct simultaneous analogue/digital surveys, 3D high resolution seismic and environmental sampling and shallow geotechnical operations. An increased level of weather tolerance will ensure a highly reliable operational programme.
Specialised equipment enables sampling in water depths of up to 3,500 metres and a permanent AUV hangar houses a Kongsberg Hugin 1000 autonomous underwater vehicle. The vessel, designed in close co-operation with, and built by Fr. Fassmer GmbH, can host a multitude of ROV platforms and the specially designed hull form and propulsion systems ensure acoustically quiet and economical running at higher than standard survey speeds.
Phil Meaden, Regional Director Fugro Europe Marine, explains how the new multi-role vessel will support the company’s marine site characterisation and asset integrity contracts: “The Fugro Venturer provides an exceptional range of survey solutions. She will be equally at home in the offshore wind farms of Europe, where Fugro is pioneering innovative UXO and UHR3D seismic surveys and in oilfield inspections, where our latest solutions include fast ROV and fully autonomous inspections.