SubSeaLase – Underwater laser cutting for high-speed and lower cost decommissioning of off-shore structures

英国石油天然气公司预测，到2040年，北海退役的市场价值将达到300亿GB。其中约18亿GB与海底切割活动直接相关，主要运营商需要灵活、快速、可靠、可远程部署和安全的切割技术。因此，在深海和危险水域，有一种比现有解决方案更快地降低成本的退役方法的工业需求和市场机会。SubSeaLase项目将通过开发和展示一种新型的水下激光切割系统来满足这一需求，该系统最初可用于切割深达100米的工业相关结构。该系统将包括一个水下激光切割头，激光光源和气体压缩机部署在改装的ROV上。我们预计我们的方法将比传统的切割方法快4倍；显著降低部署成本，并增加英国退役供应链的竞争力。

Oil & Gas UK forecasts the market value of decommissioning the North Sea to be ~£30Bn by 2040.Approximately £1.8Bn of this is related directly to subsea cutting activities, with Main Operators requiringcutting technologies which are flexible, fast, reliable, deployable remotely and safe. As such, there is anindustrial need and market opportunity for a significantly quicker approach to lower cost decommissioning indeep and hazardous waters than exisiting solutions.The SubSeaLase project will address this need by developing and demonstrating a novel underwaterlaser cutting system which can be initially used for cutting industrial relevant structures at depths up to 100m.The system will consist of an underwater laser cutting head, with the laser source and gas compressorremaining topside, deployed on a modified ROV.We expect our approach to be 4 times faster than conventional cutting approaches; significantlyreducing deployment costs and increasing the competitiveness of the UK decomissioning supply-chain.