Research vessel Falkor leaves Darwin today to explore the poorly understood air-sea interactions across the Indian and Pacific Ocean. This research is very important in understanding the ocean’s role in global climate change. The exchange of energy and matter between the atmosphere and the ocean are particularly onerous requirements, and have largely been neglected in climate research. Chief Scientist Dr. Oliver Wurl, from the University of Oldenburg and his international team of scientists from Germany, the United States, and United Kingdom plan to gain new insight during this 31-day expedition.

Many universities are adding or expanding their underwater archaeology program in an effort to give students a broader educational experience and a better understanding of our maritime history. The field of underwater archaeology is rapidly growing as more scientists and researchers learn to scuba dive, and the equipment required for marine exploration becomes more affordable. Long Beach City College in California is one of the many institutions involved in these efforts. They recently added the Maritime Archaeology, Science and Technology (MAST) program led by Dr. Laurel Harrison Breece. She is a member of the Registry of Professional Archaeologists and visiting professor at UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. An accomplished diver, Breece earned degrees from UCLA from her work on the silver collection from the sunken city of Port Royal Jamaica and the Spanish colonization of Central America.. She has worked on a number of high profiler projects with husband and colleague Dr. Bill Breece. “I am very excited about the new program and the opportunity it will offer students to both work in marine archaeology and operate the equipment used in these projects.” She choose JW Fishers Mfg. as the supplier for the needed equipment acquiring a sub bottom profiler, side scan sonar, magnetometer, underwater video system and metal detector. “I went with Fishers because we could get all of the gear from one source, and they offer free training.”

Ashtead Technology has strengthened its UK team with the appointment of a regional technical support leader, to provide its customers with the most efficient, cost-effective technological solutions.

Seabed Geosolutions, in cooperation with CGG, secured a new extension to its ongoing shallow water operations in the U.A.E. The variation order from Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) covers Phase-II of the Ghasha Field project. This new survey is due to start in October and is expected to take approximately 9 months. It has a value of around USD 60 million. With this new award, Seabed Geosolutions will enter its 4th year of continuous operations for ADNOC in the U.A.E., having recently successfully completed the Hail, Shuweihat and Ghasha Phase-I surveys.

DOF Subsea, a leading provider of integrated subsea services, has been awarded a contract by Ithaca Energy for phase 1 of the decommissioning of the Ithaca Operated Athena Field in the UK North Sea. The scope of work includes removing the subsea water column infrastructure that has been used on the field. The contract involves the removal of mid-water arch and risers, and secures utilisation of several DOF Subsea vessels, capable of undertaking both moorings and construction work, operating in the Atlantic region during Q4 2016 and will utilise vessels from DOF Subsea’s state of the art fleet. DOF Subsea UK has extensive fleet capability and unrivalled access to the vessels. DOF Subsea has steadily built its track record in decommissioning projects in both the UK and Norwegian sectors. In recent years the company has seen activity increase with the growing focus in the North Sea.

RentAir Offshore and ATR Power Solutions have effectively merged to become one company, offering a broader service to the global energy industry. This follows the successful merger of their parent companies, Centurion Group and ATR Group, earlier this year. The new combined business, which will trade under the Rentair Offshore brand, brings together the complementary expertise, products and services of both companies in the rental of specialist air compression, steam and power generation equipment to support oil & gas production, well testing, fabric maintenance and renewables.

Hydraulic cutters and systems specialist Allspeeds, the designers and manufacturers of Webtool, announces a compact ROV cut loop cutter for emergency activation of a Blow Out Preventer (BOP). The Webtool cut loop cutter will sever the cutting loop to activate the BOP in the event other measures have failed. Subsea intervention involves the use of remotely operated tools that often include cut loops as a redundancy measure to prevent a blow out once all ‘topside’ solutions have failed to work. The cut loop prevents pressure lock in the hydraulic system needed to activate the BOP.

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has published ‘ADCI/IOGP/IMCA Diving Terms’ as IMCA D 057. “This invaluable document has been prepared as a joint industry project (JIP) involving representatives from IMCA, the Association of Diving Contractors International (ADCI) in the United States, and the International Association of Oil & Gas Producers (IOGP) Diving Industry Work Group (DIWG),” explains Richard Benzie.

Independent subsea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) service provider ROVOP has expanded its fleet of ROVs for the US region. The company has taken delivery of a new vehicle which will be the first of its kind for the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and, in a direct response to market conditions, is set to help operators reduce costs by 40%. The commercially-proven Seaeye Leopard electric work class ROV, the most powerful vehicle for its size in the world, adds to ROVOP’s existing capability at its Houston base.

Recent discoveries indicate potential new sources of rare earth elements and scandium in the deep seabed. Ocean Minerals, LLC (Ocean Minerals) has identified areas of prospective potential in the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Cook Islands, and has entered into an agreement with the Cook Islands government for exclusive rights to prospect and explore these areas.

City-sized maps of terrain and life on the sea-floor have revealed that drifts of ‘marine snow’ on submarine hillsides act as a source of food to fuel a higher biomass of marine life on the hills than on the flatter plains surrounding hills. This finding comes from research published today in Nature Scientific Reports by scientists at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), which may help improve understanding of how features, like hillside slopes and plateaus, add complexity to seafloor habitats and help drive the distribution of marine life.

THE top three international employers and training providers shortlisted to compete to be crowned winners at the annual OPITO Safety and Competency Awards in Kuala Lumpur have been announced today (28th September, 2016). Shell Nigeria, Oil Spill Response Limited (OSRL) and McDermott are shortlisted in the Employer of the Year category, while PT Sampson Tiara, Wild Geese and Grupo Stier have been named in the OPITO approved Training Provider of the Year section. The winning companies in each category will be unveiled during the 2016 OPITO Safety & Competency Conference (OSCC), in partnership with PETRONAS, at The Royale Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Wednesday 16th November.

European scientists are joining forces to better understand oceanic change, by coordinating ocean data acquisition, analysis and response on scales ranging from the provincial to the global. Marking a major milestone, the first Assembly of Members meeting of the European Multidisciplinary Seafloor and water-column Observatory (EMSO) will be held September 28-29th in Rome, Italy

NANAIMO, September 23, 2016 !4 An innovative product has been launched by SEAMOR Marine Ltd. An in-house designed and produced Auxiliary Camera has been developed to expand the capabilities of a underwater remotely-operated vehicles (ROV).

Escort S.P our Polish distributor of AC-CESS products has been awarded the contract to supply specialised underwater equipment for inspection of harbours throughout Poland. The AC-ROV has been purchased to be integrated into 2 new vessels which were under construction at the time of the sale. Arek Markowski of Escort Sp. Zo.o said “The vessels will service 2 harbours in Poland, one in Gdansk and the other in Szczecin. The AC-ROV’s will be carrying out general harbour inspections by the harbour vessels”.

Brazil’s most advanced ROV support vessel (RSV), the Fugro Aquarius, has specified acoustic positioning technology supplied by Sonardyne Brasil Ltda., to support its subsea inspection, repair and maintenance activities in the region. Already delivered and fully commissioned, the Ranger 2 Ultra-Short BaseLine (USBL) system is being used to track the precise position of the vessel’s Work-class ROVs in water depths of upto 3,000 metres. It is also providing the vessel’s dynamic positioning (DP) system with position reference data to allow it to remain on-location whilst survey operations are underway.

Meet Helix Canyon Offshore at WindEnergy Hamburg'16

Topaz Energy and Marine, a leading offshore support vessel company, has been appointed the technical managers of three vessels by a consortium comprising Blue Water Shipping A/S and Kazmortransflot (KMTF), in connection with the TCO developed Tengiz oil field in Kazakhstan.