Offshore wind industry suppliers Ocean Geophysics and HighTide have entered into a joint venture aimed at combining their seabed data processing, analysis and interpretation capabilities.
The partnership brings together Ocean Geophysics’ large-scale geophysical data processing with HighTide’s high-resolution seabed interpretation and asset-level analysis, targeting offshore wind, cable and pipeline installation, and oil and gas projects.
Seabed data processing plays a critical role in offshore wind development, informing site selection, foundation design, array layout and safety assessments. Wind turbines and export cables rely on detailed understanding of seabed conditions, including sediment movement, shallow geology and geohazards.
Under the agreement, the two companies will offer integrated data processing for multibeam echosounder surveys, backscatter, GIS and charting data, as well as seabed mobility studies, boulder mapping and foundation risk assessments.
The joint offering also covers pre- and post-lay survey processing for cable and pipeline installation, as-laid and as-built trenching documentation, and remotely operated vehicle inspection data for asset integrity.
Ocean Geophysics will also contribute its AI-driven processing and interpretation capabilities across a range of geophysical datasets, including multi-channel seismic, ultra-high-resolution seismic, unexploded ordnance surveys, sub-bottom profiler data, side scan sonar and synthetic aperture sonar.
“High Tide and Ocean Geophysics complement each other. High Tide provides services that we don’t – and vice versa. By teaming up, we can provide developers of offshore wind farms with a full suite of seabed data processing and interpretation. Moreover, we can jointly take on even bigger projects together as a one-stop shop for marine data processing,” said Alison Wells, CEO of Ocean Geophysics.
The companies said the partnership is intended to reduce data handover gaps by linking geophysical interpretation with asset-level inspection data, supporting more consistent seabed analysis throughout the lifecycle of offshore wind projects.