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In partnership with our strategic partner, M&O, and pump technology solutions provider, DESMI Inc USA, Belga Marine landed its first service job in Singapore. On this incredible journey was our experienced technician, Vitor Bernardo, with the support of his assistant, Jerri Monsores.

Our two technicians travelled for 45 days in international sea, crossing the Indian and Atlantic Oceans, to install DESMI’s OptiSave™ – Energy Saving System.

“It was my first job abroad, an incredible technical experience, which started in Singapore, an excellent, exotic and very technological place. In this service, I had the opportunity to work with people from many different countries, Indians, Ukrainians, Filipinos and Swedes. I was also able to experience a cultural exchange and get to know the cuisine and customs of the people of these countries. It was an intense exchange of experiences and activities during 49 days, which contributed to my professional knowledge, where I was able to learn about the OptiSave system. I was able to learn and know the importance of this system for fuel economy, and how to reduce the emission of pollutants. Without a doubt, it was an unforgettable and enriching experience”, says Vitor Bernardo, Technical Specialist I.

The economics of the DESMI OptiSave™ system.

The DESMI OptiSave™ solution provides a significant reduction in the vessel’s fuel consumption and reduction in the emissions footprint. It does this by monitoring and delivering the cooling demands of the rotating equipment on the vessel. This includes the ambient and sea water temperatures where-ever the vessel is operating. Through this active ‘intelligent monitoring’ management, the DESMI OptiSave™ system delivers significant energy savings with pay back inside 12 to 18 months. We’re talking about a cost-effective solution for compliance and to reduce environmental footprint.

According to DESMI, approximately, 800 OptiSave™ systems have been installed, which altogether have generated CO2 reductions corresponding to 1-million-tonnes CO2. This equals what a 16,000-hectare Rain Forest consumes a year.

With this energy saving solution, vessel owners can do their part to make the industry more sustainable, while also saving costs.

Belga Marine and the Environment.

As a maritime and offshore company, Belga Marine is concerned about environmental issues, and we seek to represent and promote solutions that are not just innovative, but also sustainable and don’t cause harm to the environment.

“Accessibility can be an obstacle to the installation of new systems, however, when the system provides a reduction in the vessel’s fuel consumption of USD 400,000 per year, our experienced technical team packs its bags, heads to Singapore and sails across the oceans to fulfill the mission”, says General Manager of Belga Marine, Denis Morais.

Energy efficiency is one of many great solutions that we can use to help lower CO2 emissions and it is how we practice sustainability in our business.

Have you thought about the dimension of the reduction of carbon emissions and the environmental impact this has for future generations?

For more information about Belga Marine’s services, please contact us via email: service@belgamarine.com.br.

Belga Marine is pleased to announce that it has signed a local service contract with Petrobras, via CENPES – Centro de Pesquisas, Desenvolvimento e Inovação Leopoldo Américo Miguez de Melloem -, in partnership with Ocean Visuals.

The contract aims to support the evaluation of the use of Hyperspectral Laser Induced Fluorescence (HLIF) technology for the characterization and quantification of oil, effluents and water quality. In this research project, Belga Marine and Ocean Visuals will support Petrobras in acquiring data for qualitative and quantitative analysis, which enables a systematic monitoring of surface water or in the water column.

The technology consists of an integrated hardware and software system for real-time detection and characterization of oil and effluents on the water surface and in the water column on board vessels.

The use of remote sensors on offshore and maritime installations has revolutionized the way in which information is acquired, allowing the detection, characterization and monitoring of hydrocarbon leaks or effluent disposal at different scales, with a high frequency of observation and quick availability of results.

“This new technology can be one of the most important steps in oil spill detection. The technology not only detects the oil, but it remotely characterizes and identifies it, and eventually leads to its origin. With this pilot project, Petrobras will be able to handle potential oil spill cases in a much more efficient way, using this state-of-the-art technology from our partner Ocean Visual and reducing the oil spill impact on the environment”, says Alexandre de Carvalho, Sales and Business Development Manager of Belga Marine.

About Ocean Visuals: 

Ocean Visuals is a Norwegian company providing sensor systems for early detection of oil and organics in water. Learn more about Ocean Visuals here: https://www.oceanvisuals.no/

As of October 6^th, 2021, Belga Marine, formerly known as Ulstein Belga Marine, becomes a part of the Inventure Group. 

Belga Marine, on this date of its 40^th Anniversary, and with the last 16 years under the name Ulstein Belga Marine, is celebrating a new chapter in its history by becoming 100% owned by Inventure Management AS, a Norwegian holding company. 

Inventure Group has a strong track record in developing companies and solutions in the Brazilian energy, offshore and maritime industries. The group is working as an active partner in several companies working throughout the value chain from sales strategy development, establishment and operational support services, R&D activities, property development and into energy production. 

Inventure has now acquired Belga Marine as a result of a continued partnership in Brazil, and with strong synergies established in the recent years. Belga Marine will strengthen the capabilities of the group particularly as a leader for maritime digitalization solutions and services. 

“Based on our knowledge and experience within automation and communications solutions, Belga Marine has moved towards digitalization and helping clients with their digital transformation. We have been able to successfully develop a world class portfolio within cybersecurity, condition monitoring and advanced oil spill detection, among other areas. Belga Marine has the know-how to be a leader in delivering reliable and efficient solutions for companies that want to be ready for the future. It’s thanks to its continuous look on the future that Belga Marine this year is celebrating 40 years anniversary, and we plan to continue with the same vision for the next 40 years,” says Jan Lomholdt, Managing Director of Belga Marine.

Belga Marine will continue as an independent company with the commitment to transform the maritime and energy industries in Brazil, providing innovative solutions. 

Furthermore, Belga Marine will remain a reliable and experienced service partner in Brazil for technical services in electronics, telecommunications and naval automation, providing certifications, maintenance and installation of equipment and systems.

Even though Belga Marine is no longer owned by Ulstein Group, Belga Marine will continue to work closely with Ulstein also going forward. 

“Ulstein Belga Marine has been a part of Ulstein for 16 years. In these years several newbuilds of Ulstein designs have been built in Brazil, supported with valuable services from the Ulstein Belga Marine team. We are pleased to see that Belga Marine will become a fully integrated part of the Inventure Group and believe that we will see great development for the company. Even if we are withdrawing as owners, the cooperation between Ulstein and Belga Marine will ensure our continued support of our customers in Brazil,” says Cathrine K. Marti, CEO of Ulstein Group. 

Belga Marine is pleased to announce that it has recently signed a service contract with a leading South American energy company for maintenance, assistance, and training for radar-based oil spill detection (OSD).

This service contract, which is valid for 3 years and includes 7 offshore platforms, consolidate Belga Marine as a trusted and high-quality service provider in the market.

With the motto “innovation is the essence of our success”, Belga Marine is constantly training and specializing its team of service technicians, and this way becoming a reference for providing the most innovative solutions for safe and efficient operations in the maritime and offshore market.

For more information about the solutions offered by Belga Marine, please contact us at service@belgamarine.com.br

Belga Marine has partnered up with Resen Waves to deliver smart power buoys to the Brazilian energy industry.

Ocean waves are a huge, largely untapped energy resource, and the potential for extracting energy from waves is immense.

Using waves as a source of renewable energy offers significant advantages over other methods of energy generation. This is a far more sustainable and reliable source of energy given that waves are abundant and widely available. Moreover, using ocean waves and other renewable energy sources enables us to become less dependent on oil prices.

Resen Waves is a Danish company, originally founded in 2010 under the mission to fight climate change and reduce its customers’ costs by means of the Resen Waves Smart Power Buoy.

The Resen Waves Smart Power Buoy is a floating mechanical device utilizing the wave movement to activate a generator and produce electric power, which turns the center drum back and forth with the wave action. The buoy powers a battery pack or docking station on the seabed through the mooring line. This power can then be fed to AUVs or other instrumentation in the sea. At the same time, the buoy can log data from connected instruments and transmit this in real-time through a fiber optic connection to onshore facilities using satellite, 3G or 4G connections.

The technology can be applied to many different markets. From oil & gas to carbon capture storage (CCS), desalination to monitoring the life in our oceans – the Resen Waves Smart Power Buoy combined with AUVs will transform the way companies operate. By deploying the buoy as the power and data communication source for an AUV, companies can cut survey times by up to 70% and reduce operational costs by over 40% at the same time.

The benefits of the ground-breaking design, technology and functionality of the Resen Waves Smart Power Buoy are many and far-reaching for companies of all sizes. Not only can the Smart Power Buoy play a key role in helping companies move towards net-zero emission goals, but it also increases the efficiencies of company operations, while safeguarding the employees.

“Ocean wave energy is not a very explored field in Brazil but considering the size of the Brazilian coastline and its maritime area, the potential for generating ocean wave energy here is undeniable. With this new partnership, UBM helps to bring yet another sustainable solution to the market and to the energy transition, which is already happening in Brazil. As for the oil & gas industry, the benefits of the technology provided by Resen Waves are numerous and will surely innovate offshore operations.”, says Alexandre de Carvalho, Sales & Business Development Manager at Ulstein Belga Marine. 

For more information about Resen Waves, please contact us at service@belgamarine.com.br

Belga Marine has partnered up with Alerion to deliver drone inspection solutions to the Brazilian energy industry.

With the need for more sustainable energy solutions and the arise of new technologies that are not harmful to the environment, Belga Marine has decided to enter a new business area, which seeks to deliver UAV inspection services to the wind energy sector in Brazil. This is a strategic decision that benefits the business and the environment.

Our new partner, Alerion performs drone inspections of wind turbine generators (WTG) and solar farms in a fast, safe and cost-efficient manner.

Alerion was originally founded to bring space navigation technology to drones through the European Space Agency’s Technology Transfer Program, and since 2016 the company has been offering automated end-to-end industrial inspection solutions to the energy industry with its patented high-precision navigation technology.

With a strong focus on technology development, nature is still Alerion’s inspiration and driving force. Alerion’s mission is to bring the two together by developing solutions that preserve the environment and shape tomorrow’s world, where technology and nature not only coexist, but benefit from one another.

According to ABEeolica, the Brazilian Wind Energy Association, wind energy is currently the second largest source in the Brazilian energy matrix and the installed capacity will grow 50% in 2024, jumping from today’s 16GW to 24GW. Furthermore, Brazil is expected to become the first Latin American country to receive offshore wind power investments. This proves that the energy transition is taking place and that we will see a new wind power scenario in the future.

“Replacing traditional sources of energy completely with renewable energy is going to be a challenging task, however, we must prepare for the future and take part in the energy transition, which is already happening. Belga Marine is already transforming the traditional energy industry with our digital solutions that are making operations safer and more sustainable, so it is a natural step to move the business towards renewables as well”, says Jan Lomholdt, CEO of Ulstein Belga Marine.

For more information about Alerion, please contact us at service@belgamarine.com.br

Ocean Visuals’ unique OWL™ LiDAR sensor system gathers data from the air, from the water surface, and from below the surface using photonics sensors to provide real-time detection and classification of oil and organics in the sea.

Tremendous strides have been made in preventing oil spills. Yet in 2017, approximately 7 000 metric tons of oil was lost to the environment from tank vessels alone.

Oil typically submerges in water two to four hours after an oil spill occurs. This makes it hard to detect the oil for clean up.

Morever, traditional radar and camera technologies cannot be used for subsea detection because they are not capable of “seeing” below the water surface.

Innovative Laser-based System

With the help of the SEA OWL™ laser-based sensor system, Ocean Visuals can detect and classify in real-time the type of oil (crude oil, hydraulic oil, bunker oil, etc.) in the water, without the need for samples or lab analysis.

The system is very accurate because it uses Hyperspectral Laser Induced Fluorescence (HLIF)-based Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). The LiDAR detects oil by sensing direct light response induced by a laser beam hitting oil molecules in the water, thereby preventing false alarms.

The system can detect submerged oil down to depths of three metres and measure the thickness of oil on water. Moreover, it can measure sensitivity in parts per million (ppm), making it suitable for post-cleaning control in an oil spill area.

Concrete Benefits

The SEA OWL™ system provides valuable data on real-time levels of hydrocarbon and organic matter in the sea and offers real-time oil classification capabilities.

The system enables the collection of information that was previously unavailable due to lack of daylight or submerged oil. This helps to provide a complete and accurate picture in oil spill situations.

Market Potential

There is a growing global demand for detailed and accurate environmental data. Such data can be used in the effort to tackle climate change and for better decision-making, for example in crisis situations.

The SEA OWL™ system generates this type of sought-after data.

Ocean Visuals’ target markets are oil companies, environmental agencies, aquaculture companies, government monitoring agencies and scientific research institutions.

The SEA OWL™ system is also particularly well suited for use by oil companies and other stakeholders in the Arctic, as it can detect oil between ice floes and in ice slush as well as camouflaged oil. In Norway, the system has already been implemented on board cruise ships, seismic vessels and icebreakers.

Learn more about Ocean Visuals.

New partnership with AI analytics platform provider IoCurrents

Real time data is one of the key elements of a smart operation. With MarineInsight, vessel operators and shore-side personnel now have access to vital vessel information in real time. Operators on shore have access to all vessel data via the MarineInsight cloud portal. This easy-to-use interface features many applications to analyze data and provide alert information. At sea, the crew can use the Local Display on tablets, which mirrors most of the functionality of the web portal.

Using advanced machine learning models and artificial intelligence, the software constantly monitors many aspects of vessel operation, and use this information to create a model of normal operating behavior. If operational parameters as a whole deviate outside the thresholds predicted by the model, operators are alerted to a potential problem. This can help detect problems early, before operators would normally become aware of them.

“In these special times we really have to understand how technology and IT can help us save cost and think smarter based on all the data we have access to. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are no longer just fancy hype words. With IoCurrents we found a partner that took innovation to the next level, showing our customers how they can use their data to save money and predict failures before they happen without need of human interaction. The future has already arrived. ” says Jan Lomholdt, CEO of Belga Marine.

IoCurrents is an American software company that brings together the best of the cloud computing revolution and the Northwest maritime heritage.

Together with IoCurrents, Belga Marine will offer the Brazilian market with an analytics platform that can gather, analyze, and transmit vessel equipment data in real time to help on-board and shoreside operators make more informed decisions.

If you are interested in learning more about IoCurrents, please contact us at service@belgamarine.com.br

Ulstein Belga Marine has signed a new partnership with Ultra Electronics, the supplier of Integrated Surveillance & Security Systems for the offshore, oil and gas, CNI, ports and harbours and coastal surveillance markets. Together with Ultra, Belga Marine will deliver “Radar Early Warning Systems” (REWS) to the Brazilian offshore industry.

REWS systems provide a means of collision risk management and are fully tailored to the specific needs of the installations. The systems range from simple Radar and AIS tracking for collision warning, through to comprehensive security systems capable of monitoring the air, surface and even sub-surface environments to detect potential threats to the installation.

REWS systems also have the option of being augmented by the integration of Ultra’s Man Overboard (MOB) alarm and rescue coordination system, KPI monitoring, and asset management tools.

Wider integration of REWS to subsystems such as Oil Spill Detection (OSD), Flare Monitoring and Metocean systems facilitate an Integrated Offshore Safety, Security and Environmental (IOSSE) monitoring and management system

All systems and their applications leverage Ultra’s software suite known collectively as Situational Awareness Management Software (SAMS).

“The importance of moving towards intelligent and integrated digitalized solutions for communication, navigation, sea-state monitoring and optimization of performance, is evident. Our partnership with Ultra enforces our strategy and will assure more efficient and safer operations at sea for Brazilian operators including the navy. Brazil has a great market potential with its many types of vessels that can benefit greatly from innovative technology that makes sure that the industry adapts to smarter operations.” – Jan Lomholdt – Managing Director of Belga Marine

The innovative solutions provided by Ultra deliver critical advantage to companies operating in the uniquely challenging maritime and offshore environment.

Ultra has provided many tailored systems to leading operators and major oil and gas companies around the world.

At the core of Ultra’s purpose is to innovate today for a safer tomorrow.

For more information about Ultra’s Radar Early Warning Systems, please contact us at service@belgamarine.com.br

About Ultra:

Ultra specialises in providing application-engineered tailored solutions. We focus on our customers’ mission critical and intelligent systems in the defence, security, critical detection & control markets.

www.ultra.group

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, declared by WHO on March 11, 2020, almost all the services scheduled by our clients were suspended. At this time, not much information was available about its impact and the progression of the virus in Brazilian territory, and as a result, safety policies were not yet mature.

Initially, we provided and encouraged the use of masks and private drivers due to the lack of intercity transportation. We also provided authorizations to cross sanitary barriers on the roads and opened a direct dialogue with employees in order to provide what was needed to reduce the sensation of insecurity.

After the first two weeks of uncertainties and low level of service activity, business started to move again, as oil production could not stop.

Unfortunately, the pandemic intensified. Cases of Covid-19 were identified on board platforms and vessels in Brazil and the need for offshore companies to change their daily routines was evident.

The impacts on work policies

Despite the guidelines to prevent the progression of coronavirus in offshore activities announced by the ANP and governmental agencies, there is no common policy adopted by oil companies against Covid-19. Each oil company is implementing its own guidelines to protect workers’ health and continue oil and gas production.

Initially, our customers, with the most conservative approach, implemented a one-week quarantine in a hotel room before allowing anybody to go offshore. This was adopted in the hope that any symptoms of the disease would appear before going offshore, in the case that a person had been contaminated. Later on, other companies applied less effective actions, such as checking body temperature before going offshore or requesting medical documentation.

As an offshore service provider, we realized the need to adopt preventive procedures in order to guarantee employees’ rights and to carry out safe operations. Due to the seriousness of the pandemic, working with maximum safety procedures are important to ensure the health of employees and the continuation of offshore operations.

In addition to carrying out health checkups, our offshore service technicians are required to be in isolation before going offshore. If someone shows symptoms of contamination and/or has had contact with a person, who is contaminated, our security policy does not allow this technician to provide any services offshore.

As a result of this safety policy, we have not yet registered any positive case of Covid-19, and we have only encountered one situation that caused greater concern.

The incident was with an employee, who had boarded the same flight as a person that were showing symptoms of the virus during the period offshore. Our client’s immediate response was to isolate this person and everyone, who had had any contact with him. We subsequently established contact with the client’s medical team to collect all information and consulted our own occupational physician.

Our service technician arrived ashore and was examined by a medical team and tested for Covid-19. To avoid the possibility of contaminating the employee’s family, we provided him with a hotel room until the test results was ready. Almost seven days later, the result of the test was ready and fortunately it was negative, which meant that our technician could go home safely.

The life of an offshore technician

In our industry, offshore workers are the most affected during the pandemic. While technicians, who are currently not offshore have been provided with online technical and safety courses and already have mechanisms for reporting without being in the office, it is not possible for offshore workers to work from home.

The consequences of the new procedures for offshore workers put them in a less favorable condition, since the extension of their working hours, at sea and in quarantine, forces them to be away from their families for much longer time than previously.

As for the Covid-19 situation, many difficulties and uncertainties are still in play, however, we have found that the entire industry chain is concerned and committed to preventing the spread of the virus amongst employees and on offshore units. We will have to work together to ensure the health of offshore workers and only then we will manage to keep the offshore market strong, while fighting against the coronavirus.