The international offshore energy industry currently faces the triple challenges of an oil price expected to remain less than $50 a barrel, significant expensive decommissioning commitments of old infrastructure (especially North Sea) and small margins on the traded commodity price per KWh of offshore renewable energy. Further, the offshore workforce is ageing as new generations of suitable graduates prefer not to work in hazardous places offshore. Operators therefore seek more cost effective, safe methods and business models for inspection, repair and maintenance of their topside and marine offshore infrastructure. Robotics and artificial intelligence are seen as key enablers in this regard as fewer staff offshore reduces cost, increases safety and workplace appeal. The long-term industry vision is thus for a completely autonomous offshore energy field, operated, inspected and maintained from the shore. The time is now right to further develop, integrate and de-risk these into certifiable evaluation prototypes because there is a pressing need to keep UK offshore oil and renewable energy fields economic, and to develop more productive and agile products and services that UK startups, SMEs and the supply chain can export internationally. This will maintain a key economic sector currently worth £40 billion and 440,000 jobs to the UK economy, and a supply chain adding a further £6 billion in exports of goods and services. The ORCA Hub is an ambitious initiative that brings together internationally leading experts from 5 UK universities with over 30 industry partners (>£17.5M investment). Led by the Edinburgh Centre of Robotics (HWU/UoE), in collaboration with Imperial College, Oxford and Liverpool Universities, this multi-disciplinary consortium brings its unique expertise in: Subsea (HWU), Ground (UoE, Oxf) and Aerial robotics (ICL); as well as human-machine interaction (HWU, UoE), innovative sensors for Non Destructive Evaluation and low-cost sensor networks (ICL, UoE); and asset management and certification (HWU, UoE, LIV). The Hub will provide game-changing, remote solutions using robotics and AI that are readily integratable with existing and future assets and sensors, and that can operate and interact safely in autonomous or semi-autonomous modes in complex and cluttered environments. We will develop robotics solutions enabling accurate mapping of, navigation around and interaction with offshore assets that support the deployment of sensors networks for asset monitoring. Human-machine systems will be able to co-operate with remotely located human operators through an intelligent interface that manages the cognitive load of users in these complex, high-risk situations. Robots and sensors will be integrated into a broad asset integrity information and planning platform that supports self-certification of the assets and robots.

There has never been a more exciting time to be at the interface of biological engineering and petroleum geosciences. Recent discoveries in geomicrobiology and methodological breakthroughs in DNA sequencing place us on the brink of an unprecedented understanding of the role of microorganisms in globally significant processes in subsurface petroleum reservoirs. Qualified estimates reveal that the vast majority of microorganisms on Earth inhabit the subsurface. Most newly discovered taxa in this 'deep biosphere' have no representatives in laboratory cultures, thus knowledge about their role in economically relevant biogeochemical cycles is unknown. Fossil fuel reservoirs are microbial habitats of great scientific interest and even greater societal importance. Microbes native to subsurface petroleum reservoirs can cause significant damage and economic loss. However, understanding and harnessing this 'petroleum microbiome' has great potential for engineering interventions for more sustainable petroleum production and novel exploration strategies.The next generation of engineers faces the unavoidable challenge of reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and gas industry is at the epicentre of this challenge. Currently fossil fuels account for greater than 80% of global primary energy supply, yet even under optimistic projections of rapid innovation and modest population growth fossil fuels will still supply 70% of our energy in 2030 (International Energy Agency, 2010). It is clear that the transition towards more sustainable energy will require several decades, that fossil fuels will continue to be essential, and that innovation is needed in all areas of the energy sector. It is critical therefore to develop new engineering interventions and novel technologies focusing directly on the oil indsutry so that existing resources are exploited as responsibly as possible.It has long been recognized that microorganisms are important constituents of petroleum reservoirs and oil production systems, with the presence of sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) being reported almost a century ago (Bastin, 1926, Science 63:21). SRB are well known in the oil industry because they cause reservoir souring - the production of toxic hydrogen sulfide (H2S). Souring costs the oil industry billions of pounds annually due to production problems related to H2S (e.g., corrosion) and the lower value of high-sulfur petroleum. Nitrate-reducing bacteria (NRB) can be stimulated to control souring in an environmentally friendly way, and while nitrate injection is a strategy beginning to be practised offshore, it remains poorly understood. The first major objective of DEEPBIOENGINEERING is to develop a new understanding of souring and nitrate-driven souring control by applying a combination of geochemistry, microbiology and high throughput nucleic acid sequencing to reservoir production waters and experimental cultures inoculated with them. This research will deliver an unprecedented understanding of the petroleum microbiome, which will underpin prediction-based bioengineering interventions for souring control.The second major objective of DEEPBIOENGINEERING is to exploit the knowledge of the deep petroleum microbiome to track the distribution of formerly indigenous reservoir bacteria. This will lead to a totally new tool for offshore oil and gas exploration. This idea is based on the observation of oil reservoir-like bacteria (thermophilic SRB) in cold ocean sediments (Hubert et al 2009, Science 325:1541) and the hypothesis that petroleum fluids leaking from reservoirs at natural seafloor hydrocarbon seeps is a mechanism for microbe dispersal that can be quantitatively measured. This will lead to predictive models and concepts that will be use bioindicators to map the seafloor and predict or locate seabed hydrocarbon seeps. This environmentally friendly tool will assist offshore exploration for needed petroleum energy resources.

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) can be loaded with chemical sensors and sent on missions to conduct high-resolution surveys in the deep sea. They are of interest to the oil and gas industry, as, if fitted with the right sensors, they can be used to help monitor subsea pipelines for leaks and also pinpoint new hydrocarbon reserves under the seafloor by measuring the chemical composition (e.g. the dissolved methane concentration) of the waters above. However, AUVs are prohibitively expensive for routine monitoring and exploration, and often require a large and expensive ship to be present on the surface. A new innovation in AUV technology is the microsub. These miniature AUVs can cost about 2% of the price of a traditional large AUV and are small enough to be launched from a small inflatable boat or the shoreline. They can reach complex areas (shallow waters and reefs) that larger AUVs cannot get to, and can operate in large swarms to efficiently survey a large area. The main drawback of microsubs is that they have limited onboard space and power, meaning that many sensor systems cannot be carried. This means the measurements performed by microsubs are very basic. No methane sensors are currently available that can be deployed on microsubs. At the National Oceanography Centre in Southampton, we have developed a new miniaturised methane sensor that could be deployed on microsubs. In this project, we will adapt this sensor to be deployed on ecoSUB, a microsub developed at the NOC in partnership with Planet Ocean. We will work with BP to test the ecoSUB equipped with the methane sensor on demonstration missions, and help BP to change the way in which they perform leak detection and exploration. Detecting leaks early using microsubs will help BP reduce the cost and environmental impact of subsea pipeline leaks. More efficient exploration will reduce the cost environmental impact of searching for new oil and gas reserves.

Offshore infrastructure, including oil and gas and renewables installations, are rapidly colonised by a diverse range of animals and plants (seaweeds), here referred to as 'marine growth'. The nature and extent of marine growth has both engineering and ecological consequences for the performance and integrity of offshore infrastructure. From an engineering perspective, marine growth changes critical structure characteristics affecting performance at both the operational (e.g. drag and loading forces) and decommissioning phases (e.g. jacket lifting/towing). From an ecological perspective, marine growth is the basis for the 'reef-effect' offered by offshore structures; marine growth provides ecosystem services such as water filtration, food provision and shelter (e.g. for commerical fish species). The scale of offshore energy, and the associated installation and removal of structures, is considerable and includes the commissioning of new wind-farms (up to 50,000 wind-turbines are projected by 2050 in Europe) and decommissioning of oil and gas structures (>20% of North Sea assets to be decommissioned within 10 years). Industry needs to monitor four aspects of the marine growth (MG) on their installations. These aspects are marine growth type (e.g. mussels, coral, anemones) mass, volume and surface roughness. Accurate estimation of these aspects is required in order to (1) inform engineering decisions that account for effects of marine growth, (2) optimise cleaning regimes and planning, (3) inform lifting operations at decommissioning and (4) organise disposal of the marine growth. Marine growth estimates are also required to understand the ecosystem-services offered by offshore structures and thus the environmental consequences of installing and removing infrastructure. This information is also required by regulators and policy-makers as an evidence base to optimise decision-making with respect to consenting offshore activities. Currently, industry employs a simple algorithm to estimate marine growth thickness and mass on their structures. This algorithm frequently results in substantial overestimates (up to a factor of 20) between predicted and reported MG mass. The current poor MG estimates result in a high degree of uncertainty, for example in the equipment necessary to lift a structure, and this uncertainty incurs considerable costs. Our project will build on on-going research to assess the feasibility of generating, and analysing, 3D images derived from video footage obtained using remotely operated vehicles (ROV). We will calibrate the MG volume estimated from the ROV-3D images against different MG categories (seaweed, hard-growth, such as mussels, and soft-growth, such as sponges and anemones). We will then take ROV footage gathered around oil and gas structures that have subsequently been decommissioning, and cleaned, and compare our new MG estimates against those recorded by the decommissioning yard. This feasibility assessment will culminate in the production of best-practice guidelines to industry for optimal methods to generate and use 3D images in assessing MG. The knowledge embedded in end-users organisations, as result of this project, will steer adoption of 3D imaging as a novel marine growth assessment tool.