ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND, May 27, 2021 /GLOBE NEWSWIRE/ — Kraken Robotics Inc. (TSX-V: PNG, OTCQB: KRKNF), Canada’s Ocean Company™, is pleased to announce that it has joined the LifeMoor project, an industry collaboration focused on improving the lifetime estimate of subsea mooring chains. This 4-year “Knowledge Building Project for Industry” started in 2018. LifeMoor is supported by the Research Council of Norway and run by SINTEF, Norway’s largest independent research institution. The project includes a consortium of industry partners (NTNU, Equinor, MacGregor, Aker BP, Nosted, Kraken Robotics).
Saving Money and Extending Asset Life through Mooring Chain Inspection
The offshore mooring market was valued at over US$ 1 Billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a 3.7 % CAGR from 2021 to 2026 according to industry analyst, Market Study Report LLC. The largest market segment is offshore oil & gas FPSOs, accounting for over 2,000 km of mooring chains. There is also growing demand from floating offshore wind platforms.
There are a diverse number of factors that contribute to mooring chain failures. Industry best practice and available technology have limitations in estimating remaining life. In most cases industry is overly conservative, which leads to changing a mooring system earlier than needed, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars in costs and production downtime. In other cases, industry is not conservative enough which can lead to a mooring system failure earlier than expected. This can have catastrophic consequences that can cost billions of dollars in damages. The outcome of the LifeMoor project will allow for better service life estimates on mooring chains, delivering a significant benefit to offshore energy operators.
Kraken is Bringing Efficiency and Cost Savings to Mooring Chain Inspection
Kraken in partnership with the offshore energy industry and government is developing SeaVision® Mooring Chain Inspection Tool (MCIT), an underwater mooring chain inspection tool based on Kraken’s SeaVision® sensor. SeaVision® is a mature Kraken technology that produces ultra-high resolution underwater 3D laser-imaging scans and has been deployed successfully in diverse mooring campaigns in Canada and Brazil. With SeaVision® MCIT, Kraken is also developing the data analytics software to process SeaVision® data efficiently into corrosion and dimensional measurements requirements for mooring integrity analysis.
In conjunction with Kraken becoming a new member of LifeMoor, Kraken has entered into a project agreement with a major East Coast offshore energy operator. The project objective is to validate SeaVision® MCIT on a mooring chain provided by the offshore energy operator and to integrate SeaVision® MCIT with LifeMoor analytics software. Kraken expects to have the results validated and certified by Q3-2021.
Management Comments
Management Comments
“Kraken’s SeaVision® MCIT tool is a substitute to the conventional mechanical caliper used today for dimensional measurements. This advancement provides a faster, contact-free measurement that reduces the number of campaign days, consequently saving millions of dollars in operational costs and CO2 emissions associated with vessel operations. 3D corrosion models from SeaVision® MCIT combined with LifeMoor results in remaining life assessments that have the potential to be an industry game changer, providing significant improvement in asset integrity assurance and tens of millions of dollars in operational cost savings. After several years of technology development, trials, and paid demos, Kraken expects to ramp up and globally deploy a mooring chain inspection service offering in early 2022.”
Figure 1: 3D Model of Mooring Chain Showing Corrosion
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ABOUT KRAKEN ROBOTICS INC.
Kraken Robotics Inc. (TSX.V:PNG) (OTCQB: KRKNF) is a marine technology company dedicated to the production and sale of software-centric sensors, subsea batteries and thrusters, and underwater robotic systems. The company is headquartered in Newfoundland with offices in Canada, U.S., Germany, Denmark, and Brazil. Kraken is ranked as a Top 100 marine technology company by Marine Technology Reporter.
Certain information in this news release constitutes forward-looking statements. When used in this news release, the words “may”, “would”, “could”, “will”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “seek”, “propose”, “estimate”, “expect”, and similar expressions, as they relate to the Company, are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, this news release contains forward-looking statements with respect to, among other things, business objectives, expected growth, results of operations, performance, business projects and opportunities and financial results. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Such statements reflect the Company’s current views with respect to future events based on certain material factors and assumptions and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, changes in market, competition, governmental or regulatory developments, general economic conditions and other factors set out in the Company’s public disclosure documents. Many factors could cause the Company’s actual results, performance or achievements to vary from those described in this news release, including without limitation those listed above. These factors should not be construed as exhaustive. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should assumptions underlying forward-looking statements prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those described in this news release and such forward-looking statements included in, or incorporated by reference in this news release, should not be unduly relied upon. Such statements speak only as of the date of this news release. The Company does not intend, and does not assume any obligation, to update these forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release are expressly qualified by this cautionary statement.
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange Inc. nor its Regulation Services Provide (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release, and the OTCQB has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.
For further information, please contact:
Joe MacKay, Chief Financial Officer
(416) 303-0605
jmackay@krakenrobotics.com
Greg Reid, Chief Operating Officer
(416) 818-9822
greid@krakenrobotics.com
Sean Peasgood, Investor Relations
(647) 955-1274
sean@sophiccapital.com
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