Every week here lately it seems there are reports of some new sighting on Mars confirming there is more to the planet than red dust and rocks. One week it’s a lizard, another it’s a traffic light and the latest? A field artillery cannon. The little rovers that could—Opportunity and Curiosity—have wowed millions with the images and data that have been beamed down from millions of miles away. The technological sophistication necessary for these space explorers to operate is staggering and even more so when one considers that it is accomplished remotely via radio waves.

A little closer to home, a rover of a different sort—the ROV—is working to help take offshore oil and gas operations to the next level. While not as advanced as their space-exploring brethren, these subsea workhorses play a role in every stage of a field’s life. The demand for their services is increasing as more subsea field developments go online and legacy fields are taken offline. How great is this demand?

“We as an industry see it today as a $1 billion market, and that market space will be $2 billion in the next five to seven years,” said Scott Dingman, CEO of Delta SubSea, independent provider of ROV services and solutions. “Between the existing infrastructure that’s out in the deepwater and the planned projects that are currently sanctioned for deepwater, combined with the legacy infrastructure of shelf, deepwater shelf and just deepwater, I think there is a huge demand for ROVs.”

It is a dual demand in that it requires both equipment and a talented crew. To keep the pace, the company uses frame agreements with manufacturers to ensure ROVs are available when needed within a 24-hour window. Without these types of agreements, the wait could be up to a year or more for a unit, Dingman noted.

In addition to the 75% of its crew that has industry experience, the company recruits personnel with military and/or technical trade school experience for its in-house training program. The program uses hands-on simulator training and an on-the-job component to train recruits on how to fly and maintain the equipment. Finding the recruits is the greatest challenge, according to Dingman.

“We can find the equipment, but the challenge is personnel,” he said. “We hired 150 people in the last 14 months. My growth expectation could be an additional 150 offshore operators in 2015. You start to run out of industry-experienced people pretty quickly at that kind of growth rate, especially when you factor in that we expect the market to double in five to seven years.”

How will the labor pool impact the next generation of ROVs?

“I think ROVs in the next 10 to 20 years are certainly going to become much more user-friendly in operation, troubleshooting and maintaining,” Dingman said. “I also think you’re going to see more non-tethered vehicles. You’re going to see AUV/ROV vessels.”

Will the next century see subsea fields inspected, maintained and repaired by robotic rovers similar to those currently at work in Martian fields? Time will only tell, but with a little curiosity and the right opportunity, anything is possible.

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