SOLUTION / PUBLIC SOURCE RECORD
Ocean Visuals real-time detection of oil and organics in the sea
- Published 12 August 2026; estimated reading time 3 minutes. Listed as available under Maritime.
- Ocean Visuals’ OWL™ LiDAR system combines photonics sensors to collect data from the air, sea surface and below the surface, detecting and classifying oil and organic matter in real time. Its SEA OWL™ laser sensor can classify oil types such as crude, hydraulic and bunker oil in situ, without collecting samples for laboratory analysis.
- The system uses hyperspectral laser-induced fluorescence (HLIF) with LiDAR: a laser excites a light response from oil molecules in water, which the company says enables accurate detection and helps avoid false alarms. A customer-specific library of known oil samples supports classification.
- Challenge context: the article cites about 2,000 tonnes of oil spilled from tankers worldwide in 2023, alongside nine medium and one large spill. It says oil can submerge within two to four hours and conventional radar/camera systems cannot detect submerged oil below the water surface.
- Capabilities and applications listed: detect submerged oil to 3 m depth; measure oil-layer thickness and hydrocarbon/organic levels in parts per million; support post-cleanup monitoring; detect oil between ice floes, in slush and when camouflaged; and gather data in low-light conditions. Fitting sensors to offshore supply vessels can make them available for spill-response tasks. In Norway, the page says the system has been installed on cruise ships, seismic vessels and icebreakers.
- Target customers include oil companies, environmental and government monitoring agencies, aquaculture businesses and scientific research institutions. Ocean Visuals has worked with Petrobras’s R&D Remote Sensing team since 2018 on real-time oil detection and a custom spectral oil library. The company says its technology is patented in the US and Europe and that it received an EIC Accelerator grant in 2024.
- Linked to SDG 6, Clean water and sanitation, and SDG 14, Life below water, for oil/organic detection, cleanup and environmental monitoring.
- Contact: Christian Testman, CEO, christian@oceanvisuals.no. Phone number is behind a collapsed reveal control. Company: OCEAN VISUALS AS, Heimdal 25, 6012 Ålesund, Norway; oceanvisuals.no.