Sonardyne confirms next phase of On Demand Ocean Bottom Node project with Shell, Petrobras and SENAI CIMATEC in Brazil

The project, which began in 2018, involves a collaboration between industry partners including Shell Brasil Petróleo Ltda, Petrobras and SENAI CIMATEC and is supported under the Research Development and Infrastructure funding clause of the Brazilian National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP).

These highly innovative nodes might lead to the next generation of geophysical monitoring systems in the offshore oil and gas industry. Using Sonardyne’s proprietary optical and acoustic communications technologies, and drawing on its extensive experience of seabed monitoring, OD OBN expects to provide a versatile, lower cost, more resilient solution for time-lapse seismic and subsidence monitoring of producing reservoirs with better data and the capacity to be placed on the ocean floor for up to five years without human intervention.

The idea is that data from these nodes can be extracted using Sonardyne’s through water optical communications system to a nearby Autonomous Underwater Vehicle such as ‘Flatfish’ which was developed by Saipem and SENAI CIMATEC under another ANP funded program sponsored by Shell and Petrobras.

This latest phase was confirmed by the signing of contracts between SENAI CIMATEC and Petrobras in August 2023 and between Shell, SENAI CIMATEC, and Sonardyne in April 2024, to produce a pilot array of 600 prototype nodes expected to be deployed towards the end of 2025 at a preselected field offshore Brazil.