The partnership between Schilling Robotics and FMC is having a very positive impact on nearly all of the fifteen projects FMC operates in Brazil.
Since 1985, Schilling Robotics has been engineering, manufacturing, and delivering the highest quality subsea equipment in the subsea market. Its first small, hydraulically powered underwater remote manipulator went to market in 1986, and by 1988 Schilling had become a leading supplier of high-performance subsea remote manipulator systems used in offshore oil, telecommunications, scientific, and military operations.
By 1997, Schilling had developed a suite of manipulator systems and accessories to fit a variety of needs and budgets. The company currently offers five standard telerobotic manipulator systems: TITAN 4, ATLAS, RigMaster, CONAN, and ORION. The Schilling product line displays a wide range of functions, sizes, lift capacities, ranges of motion, control systems, and dexterities.
In 1998, Schilling Robotics began a four-year, $20 million program to create the Remote Systems Engine (RSETM), a set of modular building blocks for underwater propulsion, actuation, and control. Simultaneously, the electric work-class QUEST ROV was built, based on the RSETM building blocks. The first QUEST was delivered in 2001.
Anticipating the need for ROVs to perform ultra-heavy tasks in deep water, Schilling undertook development of the UHDTM, a hydraulic, ultra-heavy-duty ROV. The first UHD system was delivered in early 2006. Schilling has designed and delivered customized survey UHD systems for many of its customers, and will continue to build fleets for customers who want to offer the world's most advanced ROV technology to their missions.
In December 2008 FMC Technologies acquired 45% of Schilling Robotics for $116 Million. This acquisition partnered two companies with innovative technologies that are in worldwide operation.
FMC Technologies is the leading manufacturer and supplier of subsea production systems.
Schilling Robotics is a leading producer of ROVs, ROV manipulator systems, control systems, and other high-technology equipment and services for oil and gas subsea exploration and production.
In addition to its expected purchase of 45% of Schilling, FMC Technologies has acquired the rights to exercise an option over the two year period beginning in 2012 to acquire the remaining 55% of the company.
FMC currently has 15 operational projects in Brazil, (12 with Petrobras, 2 with Shell and 1 with Chevron). Including some mega fields, all these projects need intensive ROV use. While maybe not all of them used Shilling Robotics ROV systems, certainly a great many projects do. Just from the Brazilian projects one can glimpse the magnitude of growth that this partnership with FMC has brought to Schilling Robotics ROV operations.
As new fields are developed in Brazil, it can be considered as a certainty that FMC will be awarded more subsea system installation contracts, as they have been for some time the leading subsea systems company in Brazil and have beenaround here for over 20 years, having two industrial facilities in Rio de Janeiro and an excellent operations base in Macaé.
Claudio Paschoa
Photo courtesy of Schilling Robotics