PR Newswire: Seabed Rig and Energid Technologies developing a safer oil drilling system

Offshore drilling has been under the microscope now more than ever. One company is working hard to implement new technologies for a cleaner, safer, more effective way to drill.  

The rig being scrutinized was being used not for production, but for exploration, seeking viable drilling areas for production. A new, safer exploration rig is being developed by the Norwegian company Seabed Rig AS.

This new exploration rig is unlike any other. The design allows it to be operated on the ocean floor, uninhabited, enabling safer exploration of ultra-deep water and arctic regions that are both difficult and sometimes impossible to access with traditional rigs.  

Seabed Rig AS has designed intelligent robots, controlled using software provided by Cambridge, Massachusetts firm Energid Technologies Corporation.

"The software was originally developed for NASA and the National Science Foundation for controlling complex robotic systems," says Neil Tardella, COO of Energid. "We are leveraging this software to build the most intelligent rig of its kind."

With an automated rig, workers are kept from immediate harm, and human error place a much less critical role in its operation -- the source of several major incidents in the past.  "Robots do not get tired and make mistakes," says Roald Valen, Robotics and Control System Manager at Seabed Rig. "They do not get hurt."

For safety, the Seabed rig employs a patented encapsulated and pressure compensated design, giving an environmentally friendly solution with zero discharge to the sea.  "Our aim is to make the rig both safer and more effective than any exploration rig currently in use," says Kenneth Mikalsen, CTO of Seabed Rig.

The prototype will be demonstrated at ONS 2010 in Stavanger, Norway on August 24-27, 2010.  

Links of interest

Energid Technologies 

Seabed Rig AS

ONS 2010

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