PRESS RELEASE

VIENNA – 06.04.2022

As part of the strategy to further enhance installation safety and decrease carbon footprint via unmanned operations, Brazilian energy giant Petrobras S.A. has joined the ARGOS JIP consortium alongside partners TotalEnergies SE, Equinor ASA, the Net Zero Technology Centre and robotics specialist Taurob GmbH.

“On its journey towards digital transformation, Petrobras has joined the ARGOS JIP development team, a crucial initiative in safer oil production systems for both people and the environment.

 By enabling previously unfeasible supervision standards and swift response times to unexpected events, robotic deployment will enable higher reliability and better operational results in our most demanding industrial environments such as Offshore Exploration & Production – with its intrinsic logistics and maintenance challenges, and Refineries – with large high-value hydrocarbon inventories and dynamic demand for market consumption.

 Robots will be applied in future facilities, reducing human exposure, allowing continuous surveillance, remote operation and intervention, and the quickest response to incidents.”, says Juliano de Carvalho Dantas, Digital Transformation and Innovation Director of Petrobras.

Petrobras’ admission into the ARGOS Joint Industry Project (JIP) complements an already remarkable consortium, created by leading energy companies TotalEnergies and Equinor, with support from the Net Zero Technology Centre (Aberdeen, UK) in 2019.

The contract to develop the world’s first Offshore Work Class Robot (OWCR) was awarded to Austrian robotics company Taurob, with battery specialist SAFT, a subsidiary of TotalEnergies, designing and providing a new battery for powering the robot.

“We are honoured to welcome another world leading energy company to the project, showing that Taurob and its partners are pursuing the right trajectory supporting the digital & robotic transition in the energy industry”, says Matthias Biegl, Managing Director of Taurob.

 

To fit a future of unmanned automated offshore installations, carbon reduction and increased operational efficiency, the Taurob Operator leads the industry as the first Offshore Work Class Robot to perform manipulation and lifting tasks in challenging environments and all-weather conditions.

“We are looking forward to embracing Petrobras’ experience and expertise in petroleum site operations, as well as cooperation in testing of our robotics solutions”, says JIP Project Manager, Damian Krol of Taurob.

Next to a rising number of inspection-only robots, this new class of robots will add business value by remotely performing actual work on offshore rigs (operating valves, equipment changes, launching pigs, etc.). Focused on reliability and year-round maintenances, this robot will limit human exposure to risk.

As with its little brother (Taurob Inspector), the Operator will be ATEX and IECEx certified, as a mighty complement to currently available survey and inspection capabilities.

Operational trials with partners will start as of Q3 2022, with the possibility to order robots from Q4 2022, and expected delivery as early as 2023.

Taurob is an industrial RaaS (Robotics as a Service) company for Inspection & Maintenance in the energy sector. Though a strategic alliance with leading Inspection & Maintenance provider Dietsmann, technological expertise and industry-specific knowledge are combined to apply robotics solutions on energy production installations.