Equinor has opened the K-lab Marine Robotics Center (KNARR), located at the processing plant at Kårstø in Tysvær, western Norway.

The facility is dedicated to testing, qualification and development of marine robotic technologies.

It will be available for use across maritime industries, and it will serve partly to develop solutions for inspection, autonomous operations, environmental monitoring, securing and maintaining offshore installations.

“At the KNARR center, we can test and mature technology that makes offshore operations safer, more efficient and more data-driven…in close collaboration with suppliers, research communities and industry partners,” said Hege Skryseth, Equinor’s EVP for Technology, Digitalisation and Innovation.

The company has three other established test centers for early-phase technology trials.

For KNARR, 3 km of subsea cable and associated electronics have been installed to support sensor technology testing; these, combined with established power cables, export pipelines and subsea structures, can be used to test, for example, distributed acoustic sensing.

Equinor and Norwegian gas trunklines operator Gassco have allocated NOK16 million ($1.6 million) to establish the new center, with the potential to expand its facilities in the future.

“We have set a goal of reducing operational costs significantly by 2035,” Skryseth said. "By using underwater drones for smaller tasks, we can work more efficiently and use the larger vessels where they provide the greatest value.”