North East technology firm Succorfish is moving into the global oil & gas sector after adapting its proprietary acoustic location device MyGearTag for use hundreds of meters under water.
Developed primarily for the offshore fisheries industry, MyGearTag uses miniaturised modem technology to enable users to find ‘ghost’ fishing nets and other lost equipment over a three-kilometre radius.
Working with global sealing provider Eastern Seals in Ashington over a six month period, Succorfish has adapted MyGearTag’s casing, which is crafted from recycled fishing nets and weighs just 500 grammes, to enable it to withstand the pressure levels found in the waters around the bases of oil and gas rigs.
The adapted equipment has been tested at Cramlington-based, UKAS-accredited oil and gas testing facility IKM, with successful ‘hold’ tests completed at depths of 300m and 650m.
A ‘destructive’ test was also undertaken to a depth of more than 1,500m, with the MyGearTag unit’s internal electronics still responding after its completion.
Succorfish has now opened discussions with a number of leading service providers in the oil and gas sector about the practical applications for the upgraded technology, which could include identifying where storage spaces on the seabed are located, monitoring for moving rig anchor lines and marking the location of lost equipment that can be recovered at another time.
Chad Hooper, founder and CEO at Succorfish, says: “While the commercial fishing industry was our primary consideration, we recognised that MyGearTag also has a wide range of potential uses in the oil and gas sector, and we’re now moving to see how we can take advantage of these opportunities.
“Monitoring equipment is obviously in use in deep offshore waters, but it is large, heavy and expensive, and there is nothing available that compares to MyGearTag in terms of its size, cost, low power use and effectiveness.
“Making the most of the manufacturing and testing expertise available on our doorstep was an essential part of this adapted product’s development, with the input provided by Eastern Seals and IKM being essential to the process.”
MyGearTag was developed in partnership with Newcastle University’s Faculty of Electrical and Electronic Engineering and the pan-European NETTAG+ project, with grant funding provided by UK Research & Innovation and the European Union.
It is manufactured in the UK and assembled at Succorfish’s North Tyneside headquarters, and was originally designed to help address the significant costs and environmental harm caused by lost ‘ghost’ fishing nets, which are estimated to cost fisheries businesses around the world around $2.6bn every year.
Succorfish launched MyGearTag earlier this year and has recently gone into full manufacturing production, with distribution and reseller agreements being finalised with a number of potential partners right around the world.
Its ultra-low power requirements mean it can be run on four interchangeable AA batteries for up to six months.
Founded in 2008, Succorfish is a world leader in fisheries and security applications, and already has a 20-strong in-house design, software engineering, development and customer service team which manages all aspects of clients’ technology requirements.
Chad Hooper continues: “Each MyGearTag unit is registered to its user with a unique ID, meaning they always know exactly where it is and if it has moved from where it should be, while an easy-to-use app provides the directional tool required to find it.
“There’s been a very positive response from potential customers across the fisheries industry over the last few months, and we’re confident that we’ll see a similar reaction from the global oil and gas sector as we begin to share the benefits of deploying MyGearTag at their offshore facilities.”