Public Funding for Fugro GB (North) Marine Limited

Fugro in Aberdeen are a marine geodata services provider to the EUAF (Europe & Africa) energy markets, predominantly Renewables and Oil & Gas. Two business lines, which have a subset of service lines, operate from Aberdeen: * Marine Site Characterisation * Marine Asset Integrity Fugro has identified delivering its services via remote or autonomous operations as its long-term strategy and has currently executed over 150,000 hours globally to date. To support Fugro's remote and autonomous operations strategy, significant investment into the Aberdeen ROC (Remote Operations Centre) has been made. The first ROC room was commissioned in 2019 and the ROC is fully functional. This enables people to be removed from the offshore environment and sited in the dedicated Aberdeen ROC without compromising on quality of service. It also facilitates fully autonomous operations. Many projects in the UK energy sector have been postponed due to the COVID-19 restrictions. Other projects are proceeding, but with major implications. These implications include: * personnel being unable to mobilise or return home * 7-day pre and post mobilisation quarantines * Increased project costs * Inability of UK personnel to travel and losing work Using Fugro's ROC in Aberdeen brings many benefits to the UK economy, including: Wellbeing * Exportable technology and processes * Allowing operations to be carried-out anywhere in the world from Aberdeen * Improving diversity (no need for offshore medicals etc) * Supporting world leading technology * Supporting the UK commitment to Climate Change Act 2008 and Maritime 2050 Using remote Fugro services enables removal of all Fugro & 3rd party personnel from an offshore Vessel and relocated into the ROC for specific operations. Other operations provide reductions of PoB (Personnel on Board) by between 29% and 75%. Whilst remote operations will become the norm in the future, giving Client's the opportunity to execute remote operations now will enable projects to potentially proceed when they would otherwise be cancelled due to COVID-19\. Fugro have received increased enquiries about the ROC since the COVID-19 restrictions, but it still relatively unknown. The purpose of the project is to ensure all potential Clients are aware of the ROC and how it can benefit them. This is especially relevant for Client's struggling with crewing their Vessels or the safety and financial implications of having to quarantine multiple people before and after crew changes. Remote Operations will also help reduce the possibility of transmitting COVID-19 onboard.