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Ecosse Subsea Systems (ESS) have progressed their subsea lifting programme by successfully completing client-witnessed trials of Ambient Lifting technology at their Aberdeenshire research and development facility.

Ambient Lifting works by decoupling the subsea load from the surface vessel by utilising the Archimedes principle, the fundamental law that provides floatation for all ships, ESS said.

The Ambient Lifting system can be used to lift, lower or hover any subsea object in the water-column and act as either a temporary installation aid or form part of the final subsea asset as either buoyancy or ballast.

The system does not require the use of heavy lift vessels, utilises off-the-shelf components and is fully scalable. Applications in the oil and gas, renewables, decommissioning, salvage and seabed mining markets, are cited as key development areas for uses of this technology.

ESS believe Ambient Lifting can realise significant savings to offshore operations, particularly those associated with installation and recovery of all subsea assets, no matter what shape or size, the company wrote in the press release.

ESS Technical Director, Michael Cowie, said: “Ecosse are excited about the potential to introduce this new subsea lifting technology to such a variety of applications and markets. The success of our recent trials was reinforced by one client who requested an exclusive licence agreement for their specific application.

“ESS see the current energy sectors as an opportunity and will continue moving forward with focus on technologies that bring appreciable cost savings for our clients.”