Argeo Steams Ahead on Subsea Survey

Trond, sister-publication Marine Technology Reporter (MTR) featured you about a year ago in its March-April edition. What's new for Argeo since?

It's been a lot, I can tell you. It seems like the last time I spoke with MTR, it was two, three years ago now—that's how much has happened. But at the same time, we’re still finding our feet. A year ago, we had just acquired Argeo Searcher, which was one of our first subsea survey vessels and had started our first ultra-deep-water projects. And since then, we've added so much more. The Searcher has completed several hallmark projects for prominent customers like the Norwegian Petroleum Directorate, Shell in Nigeria and the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (NCPOR) in the Indian Ocean.

We’ve rolled out our newest AUV line with Hugin Superiors and bought our newest subsea vessel, the Venture, from Shearwater while also bringing them in as a shareholder. The Venture was used by TotalEnergies for their Namibia development project Venus and is mobilized there, as we speak. We’ve also commercialized and proven the Argeo LISTEN system for subsea integrity inspections and proven its capability as a deep-sea mineral detection and resource estimation tool. Lastly, the Searcher is active in the Calypso field in Trinidad and Tobago as part of a contract with Woodside Energy.

If someone had told me one year ago that what we would be doing now, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’d think it would be impossible, but there’s been fantastic teamwork and spirit throughout the company, which has obviously grown. We have now 80 employees, both onshore and offshore, and that continues to grow as we develop more projects and technological advancements.

Out of all those projects you mentioned, is there one that was either your favorite or one that challenged Argeo?

That's the thing—they almost all are because a lot of what we are doing comes from teamwork. And of course, when you're moving into this, you’re apprehensive. Will it work as we have tested? Will it give the results that we hoped it would? With NCPOR, we’re trying to prove that these sensors can be used for identifying mineral resources at nearly 6,000 meters, which is basically unheard of. We’ve spent a lot of time developing the sensor system and when something works, it’s a special moment for everyone involved, from the technology developers to the operators and so forth.

You’ve had great successes this far? How will you maintain this drive and uniqueness for years to come?

First, we aren’t a company that stands still. We always move on. We have a portfolio of intellectual property that goes in sync with our technology development in three verticals—oil and gas, marine minerals, and renewables. We harness this in new sensors that can open new frontiers in terms of exploration—either in deeper water or in previously mentioned projects like offshore wind. This combination of technology as a service to deliver superior products is really what we're about.

When we started all of this, we knew that we could choose to be one of the best. That's always a strategy, but we chose to be unique in what we do and to bring something new to the field, which is somewhat of a heritage as well. Combining in-house engineering and technology into production systems and doing those types of job ten times faster with superior quality—that's Argeo. And as we became good at that, we also said that, "Okay. I think the customer would like us to deliver our products from our field units to have rapid answers to their questions.” That makes us a bit special, I hope.

© Argeo

We have an in-house data platform called Argeo SCOPE that integrates all the data from our LEDs, allowing both our internal employees and our clients to interact with the data. We’ve also made good use of Elon Musk’s Starlink to get data to shore, which has been an enormous step forward in terms of access to our vessels. Trond Crantz, Founder & CEO of Arego

Let’s switch gears to dive into your recent projects, including the contract with Woodside Energy. Can you tell me a little bit about Argeo's role in that, what value it brings to you, and the vehicle being used?

Absolutely. We've known Woodside for some time and we've been talking with them about the Calypso field. Our contribution is the Argeo Searcher with the new Hugin Superior. It’s a big project for us as a company; we’re positioning ourselves within the oil and gas sector, which is massively important.

We recently purchased two new Hugin Superiors, with all bells and whistles of sensors included. In addition, we fully integrated our own Argeo LISTEN system. The superiority of the AUV lies in the production facility of the vehicle (6000m) dual-HISAS which doubles the swath with and production speed, CathX cameras and laser, and the endurance of up to 60 hrs of real acquisition time. It is the most advanced AUV on the market to date, hands down.

As an expert in the field, what do you see as the future of ocean surveying and subsea sensing?

How long is a rope? There's a huge and very fast cycle of technology, which is ongoing. It never stops. We’ll see big changes in terms of the vehicles we use, what they can do, and how they can achieve the things that they do. I think that’s what everyone sees. But we’re thinking, more specifically, how does machine learning and AI help us interpret data?

To give an example—with all the sensors turned on our Hugin Superior, for say 48-50 hours, we acquire up to 10 terabytes of data. Imagine sifting through all of that. It takes a long time today, but we’re working on algorithms to help us pick out important pieces. Another thing we’re working on is to make the data live for the client. We’re developing a new data platform that allows more live interaction with data for decision making. There's a lot going on the computer side to make things go faster, easier, and to be able to give more sense of what we're seeing.

We have an in-house data platform called Argeo SCOPE that integrates all the data from our LEDs, allowing both our internal employees and our clients to interact with the data. We’ve also made good use of Elon Musk’s Starlink to get data to shore, which has been an enormous step forward in terms of access to our vessels. I can have a Teams meeting with our vessel in the middle of the Indian Ocean today. This was a fantasy 20 years ago.

Trond, do you have a final message to close us out?

What to expect from Argeo: We’ll bring out more vessels, more tools, more vehicles, and more sensor systems—and with the pace that we’ve had so far, it won't take long.