Ballard Diving has recently taken delivery of the new Mohican vehicle manufactured by Schilling Sub-Atlantic Alliance, an Aberdeen Scotland based company that is recognized as the worlds premier manufacturer of hydraulic thruster systems and sub-sea electrical products.

Sub-Atlantic regards the Mohican as the ultimate electric inspection ROV, capable of coping with the strong currents found in arenwuas such as the North Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. The Mohican vehicle provides advantages not available in other high performance inspection vehicles.

The Mohican has been specifically designed to carry out inspection work in very high current locations resulting in reduced down time caused by adverse weather or tides.

The key to achieving this was the development of a 3000 volt/400 Hz power transmission system allowing large amounts of power to be transmitted down a very small diameter umbilical. Sub-Atlantic has also developed a 300 Vdc high pressure water jetting system for cleaning subsea structures prior to visual or NDT inspection. The pump system fits directly inside the Mohican frame, minimizing system drag (when compared with systems using underslung cleaning skids).

The delivery to Ballard Diving follows successful operations by Mohican 01, owned and operated by Integrated Subsea Services (ISS), Aberdeen Scotland. The vehicle has been working onboard Subsea 7’s Sieseranger ROV support vessel on Shell Expro’s yearly inspection campaign of all installations in the Northern and Southern sectors of the North Sea.