Subsea Monitoring System Provides Real-Time Integrity Intelligence

Sonardyne has launched Observer, an advanced monitoring system for real-time integrity intelligence management of subsea infrastructure across the offshore energy industry.

Observer combines high and low frequency motion and position monitoring, in-built analytics, and wireless communications to deliver live insight into how subsea assets are behaving.

The system enables unseen process and environmental challenges, including pipeline expansion and contraction, as well as vortex and flow induced vibration, to be identified before they become a problem. This helps lower risk, intervention, and costs while extending asset life.

Observer is Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV)-deployable out of the box and can interface with a wide range of third-party sensors. The system can be deployed for up to 10 years at depths of up to 3,000 m.

Frank Rose, Business Development Manager – Subsea Asset Monitoring at Sonardyne, commented, “Observer shows asset integrity managers how their subsea assets are really behaving, not how they hope they are, with an easy to deploy solution that provides high quality data.”

“Observer changes that with an off-the-shelf, versatile and user configurable product. It reveals asset behaviour, in real time, without adding operational complexity. This gives operators the confidence to act early, reduce risk and avoid the unexpected downtime that have long challenged offshore operations.”

Observer is designed for use on subsea assets throughout the water column, including pipelines, risers, moorings, umbilicals, wellheads, and associated infrastructure. The system is intended to help integrity managers reduce uncertainty and strengthen decision-making.

Observer is user configurable, while data offloading is available on demand through Sonardyne’s underwater communications.

Built on more than five decades of subsea expertise, the system represents the next step in subsea integrity monitoring. With Observer, teams gain visibility into subsea asset behaviour to support safe operations.