Underwater engineering and technology company Sonardyne International Ltd. has announced the appointment of Stephen Auld as its new Global Business Manager for Subsea Asset Monitoring.

Stephen, who joined Sonardyne last June (2017), takes over the role from Stephen Fasham, who has been promoted to a newly created role within the business focussing on growth and investment opportunities.

Asset monitoring is increasingly critical to oil and gas companies’ ongoing safe and profitable operation of offshore infrastructure, which, in a growing number of cases, is operating for longer than it was originally designed for.

Sonardyne’s portfolio of acoustic positioning, sonar imaging, data logging and wireless communications technologies is already well established in the offshore energy sector across a range of applications, including leak detection, riser monitoring, reservoir surveillance and pipeline creep.

[blockquote author=” Stephen Auld, Global Business Manager for Subsea Asset Monitoring, Sonardyne”]”Subsea asset monitoring is a growing market and one where we can offer customers more. Our technology is being used for a whole range of projects in this area that are diverse both geographically (from Brazil to Australia via West Africa) and in terms of how our technology is used. Our Sentry product is a great example. It’s a sonar that is able to detect and classify oil or gas seeps down to 0.1 barrels per day at ranges of up to 500 metres. We can take the first in class results that we’ve had with these technologies further, helping clients to operate safely and cost-effectively.”[/blockquote]

Before joining Sonardyne last year, Stephen was Business Development Manager at Liquid Robotics Oil and Gas, which was a joint venture between oilfield services company Schlumberger and Liquid Robotics Inc. Before joining Liquid Robotics, Stephen was Managing Director at CodaOctopus Products Ltd.

Sixth generation (6G) underwater positioning technology from Sonardyne Brasil Ltda. has been chosen by vessel owner and operator Companhia Brasileira de Offshore (CBO) to meet Brazil’s stringent new contracting specifications for subsea positioning.

The multi-functional Compatt 6 transponders and Ranger 2 USBL (Ultra-Short BaseLine) HPT transceivers that make up the order will be utilised alongside existing Sonardyne technology onboard the ROV support vessel CBO Isabella in support of a wide variety of subsea operations, including structure installation, pipeline metrology and ROV tracking.

On long-term contract to Petrobras since 2010, the CBO Isabella opted to have available two independent acoustic positioning systems so that operations can continue in the event of a single system failure. For the past few years, this requirement has been met through a combination of Sonardyne’s Fusion LBL, Optimised Ranger 2 USBL and SPRINT INS technologies; providing the vessel with the flexibility to meet virtually any project requirement in any water depth, including Sparse LBL, full LBL and acoustically aided inertial navigation for the vessel’s work-class ROV.

Replacing the CBO Isabella’s previous generation through-hull transceivers with fully digital HPT transceivers completes her upgrade to 6G, and means the vessel can exploit the full benefits of Sonardyne’s 6G technology. This is proven to offer stable and precise positioning for DP, reliable structure and vehicle tracking in any water depth and support for simultaneous vessel operations using shared seabed transponder arrays already deployed in the field.

The work equip the vessel’s inventory of Compatt 6 LBL transponders with high specification DigiQuartz pressure sensors was carried out at Sonardyne’s service, support and training centre in Macaé, Brazil.