Continental Focus, International Reach

Bourbon & Sonasurf Sign Technology Pact with Total in Angola

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Bourbon & Sonasurf announced the signing of a 3-year cooperation agreement with Total in Angola for the deployment of the Smart shipping program on 5 latest-generation supply vessels of the Bourbon Explorer 500 series (DP2-equipped PSVs) operating on blocks 17 and 32 off the Angolan coast.

Building on technological innovations, Borubon’s Smart shipping program has the objective of reinforcing the safety and reliability of operations while reducing cost by 25% over the long term. It aims at:

–           simplifying organization on board, notably with the support of digital technology

–           transferring ashore functions that are currently carried out on board by connecting the vessels.

It is based on 3 pillars: operational model aboard the vessel, predictive maintenance and support of onshore operational centers.

Among the innovations and optimizations deployed on the 5 vessels under contract with Total, some should be highlighted:

–           The use of the dynamic positioning (DP) system: its supervision is mutualized between maintenance and bridge crews to reinforce the mix of expertise. The system has been reinforced to enable the continuous and remote monitoring of DP’s integrity.

–           The rationalization of work organization on board: Bourbon crews have digitalized some of the mandatory bridge’s tasks and have developed applications to simplify the crew’s administrative work and optimize their workload. The elimination of administrative and routine tasks thus enables crews to focus on the supervision of operations.

–           The deployment of a new system of predictive maintenance for the main equipment on board: it enables the reduction of vessel downtime and thus the impact on customer operations by anticipating incidents on equipment that are under constant monitoring. It is coupled with dedicated organization onshore.

Deployment of the Smart shipping program on this fleet of supply vessels is in line with Total’s willingness to deploy innovative solutions enabling the sustainability of current vessel rates over the long term and thus the control of its production costs.

“This new mode of vessel operation enables us to meet the challenge of controlling costs in the current time of recovering activity. We are very happy to have been able to move forward in collaborative mode with Total on this deployment project in Angola,” stated Ivelino Do Nascimento, Sonasurf Operations Manager.

“Our customers’ trust and this project in partnership with Total in particular are essential in the success of our #bourboninmotion action plan. The deployment of the program at Total prefigures a new way of sustainable cooperation and optimized services delivery to our customers with fewer resources,” adds Victor Chevallier, CEO of Bourbon Marine & Logistics.


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