Download as PDF

The North Atlantic is one of the most inhospitable environments on the planet. Fierce winds and frigid temperatures are commonplace, sudden storms can materialize without warning, and all manner of floating ice can trap, damage or even sink maritime vessels. Yet it is here that Atlantic Canada’s offshore oil and gas industry has been operating for years and with an impressive amount of success. Since 1997, Newfoundland and Labrador’s three producing offshore fields have extracted more than 1-billion barrels of oil.

To remain prosperous under such harsh conditions, the offshore industry relies on a variety of innovative technologies. One example is the 15-metre thick ice wall that surrounds the Hibernia platform and shields it from giant icebergs. Another is a sophisticated radar system produced by Newfoundland and Labrador company, Rutter Technologies. Known as the Sigma S6 Ice Navigator, the system can detect and track small chunks of floating ice, such as bergy bits and growlers, that are often too small to appear on conventional radar systems. 

These little chunks of ice pose a large threat to the industry. “A small bergy bit has the consistency of a block of cement, so if you run into it with a boat, chances are you’re going to put a hole in your boat,” says Paul Snow, director of Sales and Marketing for Rutter Technologies. “There’s always an interest in learning more about the ice and picking up the small bits of ice that could come and interrupt production, because when you’re producing 100,000 barrels of oil a day, you don’t want to have to stop production.”

Engineers originally developed the Sigma S6 technology for the Newfoundland and Labrador offshore oil industry, which was searching for some practical way to detect small bits of floating ice. Today, Snow says all three of the province’s offshore platforms (Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose) are using Rutter’s Ice Navigator. The company, however, quickly recognized that its technology had applications far beyond the local offshore industry. “As we recognized that the Arctic was opening up and more tankers and oil developments were happening in the Arctic, we kind of coined the phrase ice navigator because it was of such value,” says Snow. “More of those developments are going to require ice navigation technology both on the platforms and then the supply boats.”

Snow says the Ice Navigator is ideal for ships travelling through icy waters because it provides a much more detailed image of pack ice and other objects on the water’s surface than conventional radar can generate. This in turn allows ship crews to identify the safest and most efficient routes through ice-choked seas. “You want to take the path of least resistance because it reduces your hull damage and it saves you fuel,” says Snow. “We say that a vessel operating in icy waters for a full season will pay for our Ice Navigator in fuel savings.”

Many international vessels have adopted Rutter’s Ice Navigation system: German research vessels, Russian tankers and icebreakers (including one of the world’s largest icebreakers, the Yamal), and vessels with the Swedish, Norwegian and Canadian Coast Guards. It’s also used by some ships performing seismic surveys in Arctic regions, such as those with the French-based geophysical services company CGGVeritas. 

Rutter is proud of its accomplishments with the Ice Navigator and is eager to build on its success. The company has expanded its core Sigma S6 radar technology into two new directions: oil-spill recognition and small-target detection and surveillance. In 2008, independent trials hosted by the Norwegian Coast Guard proved that Rutter’s Sigma S6 radar processor can detect oil slicks on the water’s surface. Since then, the company has developed a Sigma S6 Oil Spill Detection System and in October 2009 sold two units to Castalia Ecolmar, an Italian company working to protect marine environments.

“This is our newest product so we’re just kind of cracking the market now,” says Snow. “We also are just now completing some software that will give us wave and current direction to go with that. So we’ll be able to detect the oil, estimate its volume, estimate which way it’s drifting.”