Abstract

Maritime transport is responsible for about 2.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions representing around 1000 million tons of CO annually. The situation of shipping emissions that strongly depends on future economic grows is aggravated by the fact that global green house gas (GHG) emissions are predicted to increase between 50 and 250% by 2050. This is not compatible with the internationally agreed goal of keeping global temperature increase below to compared to pre-industrial levels, which requires worldwide emissions to be at least halved from 1990 levels by 2050. Furthermore, ship owners are facing barriers implementing energy efficiency technologies to reduce CO mainly due to reliability, and financial and economic constraints as well as due to the complexity of change. Energy consumption and CO Operators of offshore production units (OPUs) employ risk-based assessment (RBA) techniques in order to minimise inspection expenses while maintaining risks at an acceptable level. However, when human divers and workers are involved in inspections conducted at high heights, the operational risks can be significant. Recently, there has been a growing trend towards the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), autonomous surface vehicles (ASVs), remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) for inspections of offshore structures as a means to reduce exposure to human risk. This article provides an analysis of these vehicle inspection capabilities and their potential to enhance robustness and safety within the oil and gas industry. The review assesses both the advantages and the drawbacks associated with these innovative systems, providing valuable comparisons and assessments on their potential use as viable alternatives to conventional inspection methods.