Industry Insights
Based on public industry reports, analyze the deep-sea exploration market's prospects, bottlenecks, and technological evolution.
Deep-sea Resource Prospects (Public Data)
95 trillion
Total Value of Deep-Sea Oil and Gas Resources (Based on Public Reports)
81 trillion
Value of Deep-Sea Metallic Resources (Nickel, Cobalt, Copper, Manganese, etc., per public reports)
2.5 trillion
2026-2035 Global Cumulative Capital Expenditure on Offshore Oil & Gas (Projected)
16x
Multiplier of newly discovered reserves in deepwater compared to onshore (based on public reports)
Data source: Public reports from institutions such as UBS, for reference only.
Industry Bottlenecks and Solutions
Traditional OBN operation bottlenecks
- —Traditional ocean-bottom node (OBN) surveys rely heavily on remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) for single-node deployment and recovery, resulting in long operational cycles.
- —ROV operations require tether support; efficiency decreases with depth, and equipment loss and cable entanglement incidents are common.
- —Industry analysis shows that in projects with tens of thousands of nodes, retrieval and recovery can account for 40%-60% of total costs, hindering the mass industrialization of deep-sea exploration.
Manta Node Approach
- —Cable-free autonomous deployment: Nodes use independent micro-propulsion systems to fly underwater and precisely land on the seabed after being batch-dispensed from a mother vessel.
- —Auto-Recovery: After task completion, the intelligent buoyancy system automatically releases the unit from the seabed and surfaces it for batch retrieval by the mother vessel.
- —The ROV-free workflow is projected to boost operational efficiency by over 50% (design target) while reducing vessel time costs and equipment loss risks.
Market Trends
Deep-sea oil and gas exploration
Deepwater new discoveries continue to grow; cumulative capital expenditure from 2026 to 2035 is projected at $2 trillion, with rigid demand and strong payment capability.
Deep-sea mineral exploration
Rising demand for surveying strategic resources such as polymetallic nodules is driving upgrades in exploration equipment, signaling the imminent commercialization of deep-sea mining.
CCUS Carbon Sequestration Monitoring
Rising number of offshore carbon storage projects makes time-lapse seismic monitoring an essential end-to-end requirement, with policy-driven certainty increasing.
Offshore Wind
Offshore wind farms are expanding into deep waters, where site surveying, foundation monitoring, and O&M requirements share technological roots with oil and gas exploration.