Global ROVing

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Since 2003, expenditure on work-class ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) operations has more than tripled. Further strong growth is expected over the next five years – leading to a total market of some $2.4 billion per year by 2012 – one of the findings of a new market study "The World ROV Market Report 2008-12" from energy analysts Douglas-Westwood Ltd (DWL).

The last 50 years or so has seen some dramatic and rather rapid changes in ROV technology. After the first tethered ROV system was built in 1953 by Dimitri Rebikoff, the US navy invested millions into the design of remote systems, primarily built to perform deep-sea rescue operations and recover lost ordnance from the sea floor.

CURV, a cable repair vehicle and one of the very first ROVs was used to recover the hydrogen bomb lost off Spain in 1966, and then rescue the crew of the manned submersible Pisces III from the bed of the Atlantic in 1974.

However, the majority of growth in the ROV industry came from its move into the commercial arena following the swift development of the offshore oil & gas industry of the 1970s and 80s; the latter end of which introduced offshore developments too deep to be economic for human divers - ROVs had become an essential part of offshore production.

DWL's market forecasts contained within The World ROV Report 2008-2012 focus specifically on work-class vehicles operating in the offshore oil and gas industry as this is the sector where most of the commercial vehicles are employed.

Definitions & activities

Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are electrically powered and controlled via an umbilical, manoeuvring themselves in response to human commands and using either hydraulically or electrically driven thrusters. ROVs have the ability to "hover" and stay on location to perform a task.

ROVs are classified roughly by the nature of the task they do and are found working on offshore platforms, support vessels, in nuclear power plants, in reservoirs, and salvage projects and even submarine rescue operations.

Work Class ROVs are equipped with manipulators and may have a variety of tools available (cutting disks, saws etc) often via a removable "tool-skid" to suit a particular job.

There are some ROVs classed as heavy duty (HD) due to increased payload and power availability, and also a "survey & inspection" class. The personnel operating and maintaining work-class ROVs must be highly trained as the technology involved can be complex.

Eyeball Class ROVs are normally all-electric powered and have no manipulators or payload capacity. Eyeball systems are smaller, cheaper and simpler than larger work-class systems and are well suited to the inspection of confined or hazardous underwater areas (internal pipeline inspection and inside nuclear reactors).

Many have now been adopted by security forces for use in homeland security and drug enforcement work. Some eyeball ROVs are mounted on large work-class systems which they use as a local base and for which they provide extra viewing capability during complex operations.

Market drivers

The market forecasts in The World ROV Market Report 2008-2012 is based on the analysis of demand drivers - the work-class ROV industry has seen strong growth driven by the high long-term growth in oil prices of recent years - and it is expect to continue.

Growth offshore

Around a third of world oil and gas production came from offshore in 2007; a figure which will increase as long-term oil price rises have enabled some offshore fields, particularly in deepwater, to become economically viable.

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