Technology

Seabed Rig AS is a Stavanger-based company that develops an innovative drilling rig to be located submerged at the seabed for cost-effective drilling in deep waters and arctic areas.

The Seabed Drilling Rig consists of a patented encapsulated design that ensures an environmentally friendly solution with zero discharge to sea and same safety barriers as for conventional drilling. The Seabed Drilling Rig is remotely controlled from a surface vessel and equipped with a complete and fully-automated drilling rig.

The Rig is connected to the vessel through an umbilical with power, control and mud flow (Subsea mudpumps are developed in co-operation with Optipump AS). All functions on the rig are remotely controlled from a control room on the surface vessel or from land. The rig is made up of modules that can be lowered through standard moon pool inside the surface vessel and guided in place by means of guide wires. The rig is filled with water, pressure compensated and encapsulated in order to avoid contamination of the surrounding environment.

A simulated reality combined with a surveillance system is used for operation and visualization of the rig. By using the same models for design/construction and in the simulator, it will be possible to run the entire Seabed Drilling Rig with the actual control system and simulated I/O, with the final MMI (man-machine interface), before the Rig itself is actually built.