Offshore oil and gas production platforms are complex and hazardous process facilities which are usually attended by a permanent human crew to run the daily operations. In recent years, the oil and gas industry has demonstrated strong commitment to change this traditional operations approach and move towards inherently safer philosophy in offshore facilities design and operations, i.e. removing human crew from the facility and operating it remotely from a safe location over extended periods. This paper aims to demonstrate the readiness of robotics technologies coupled with digitalization technologies in process control and facility automation in transforming offshore oil and gas production platforms into smart unmanned installations. This paper is focused on the application of smart robotics, with highly dexterous capabilities and equipped with multiple sensing instruments, in maintaining an offshore oil and gas production facility in full operation without a permanent human crew, and with planned visits to the platform at 12-week intervals, in a case study. The robots are developed to be remotely operated from an onshore control center and/or may be programmed to function autonomously for routine missions on the offshore facility.

A normally un-manned minimal floating platform can be used for several applications to support subsea development. The applications include enabling Long Subsea Tiebacks by supporting power generation and distribution equipment, when the host facility doesn't have excess power capacity (Power Buoy) or the required footprint and space to support the required power distribution hardware or locate the distribution equipment to distribute the power imported from shore. It can also serve as a partial processing host with functionality ranging from Chemicals and Artificial Lift all the way to Multi-Phase Pumping or Gas Compression, as required. An un-manned floating platform can be a cost-efficient solution, where the economics of a very Long Subsea Tieback or a Host Facility with full processing capacity become prohibitive for developing small to medium size fields. The substructures for these platforms have reduced and simplified systems resulting in lower Capex, Opex and minimal maintenance requirements. This platform is safer to operate than conventional host platforms because it is un-manned, and it also deploys robotics and remotely controlled equipment, using the latest advances in digital, robotics, and autonomous control technologies. The paper reviews the different floating unmanned minimal platform configurations that are designed for this purpose. The following aspects of the normally un-manned floating platform are discussed: Functionality Cost-Efficient Design alternatives Construction/Installation efficiency Operations/ Maintenance principles Possible applications of the normally un-manned floating platform include small to medium size fields, remote gas fields requiring compression to export gas to shore that would otherwise prove to be un-economical to develop. The normally un-manned floating platform helps improve the development economics and the operational safety of these fields. The industry's response to the oil price slump in the past few years combined with the latest advances in technology led to the evolution of these minimal unmanned floating platforms.