Close calls at sea make dangerous waters. Calm them.

Vessel collisions at sea often make big headlines worldwide, and rightly so. However, not every threat is a headline. Many of the most telling incidents are the near misses, close calls that, with only a few meters or minutes of difference, have the potential of becoming major catastrophes.

For example, in 2022, an unmanned vessel adrift breached Petronas’s offshore exclusion zone in Terengganu, drifting toward production facilities before operators intervened in heavy seas*. Another example includes a vessel that came within 10 meters of a wellhead while the master was preoccupied with changeover and did not expect to drift so close to it (according to the IMCA records). In addition, multiple cases of vessels drifting into 500 m safety zones were logged into IMCA over the last few years.

These examples illustrate how offshore risks are not always catastrophic at first. They often are subtle breaches, slow drifts or occasional lapses in situational awareness. However, if ignored and not addressed, they can escalate very quickly.

*Petronas Media Release, 4 Jan 2022

Marlin VTA is Sercel’s answer to these challenges. It provides 24/7 real-time visibility and control of offshore operations, enhancing safety, situational awareness and control across offshore operations.

Marlin VTA brings vessel tracking, environmental awareness, and smart alerts together in one platform, giving offshore managers, vessel masters, marine safety professionals, and operations teams the tools they need to detect, prevent, and respond to threats before they escalate into incidents. 

With the increase in congestion across offshore fields, climate change making the weather increasingly unpredictable and operational zones shifting frequently, mistakes can be very damaging and costly. Manual and disparate systems leave blind spots, delay decision-making and make it difficult to adhere to safety zones in real time.

Marlin VTA helps eliminate these limitations with a single, common operational picture that brings all the offshore stakeholders together, enabling real-time collaboration in a single, shared, secure, and actionable real-time view. Its playback function allows teams to rewind vessel movements, analyze what happened, and strengthen procedures. Thus, every event can be turned into a lesson for safer and smarter operations.