Almost 7,000 visits were made to Europe’s largest subsea event, Subsea Expo, held in Aberdeen this week, despite the industry facing its toughest year ever. The exhibition and conference, organised by Subsea UK, attracted just under 5,000 individual delegates, many of whom visited more than once over the three days. International delegates flew in from all corners of the world, including Africa, Brazil, Japan, Mexico, Nigeria and the US.

Cost reduction is the constant aim of the marine renewable energy industry, and this year’s ‘Marine Renewables’ conference session on Tuesday 15 March, the opening day of Oceanology International 2016 (OI 2016), the world’s largest exhibition and conference for marine science and ocean technology (London’s ExCeL, 15-17 March), will be exploring some of the steps being taken to achieve this all-important goal. Like all the component parts of Oceanology International the conference is free to attend, online registration is at www.oceanologyinternational.com.

Fugro has been awarded a contract by BHP Billiton Petroleum Pty Ltd for the Pyrenees Phase 3 Installation Project. The Pyrenees development is located offshore Western Australia, in approximately 200 metres water depth, 45 kilometres northwest of Exmouth, and comprises six separate fields: Stickle, Crosby, Tanglehead, Moondyne, Wild Bull and Ravensworth. The project includes the tie back of the Stickle 9 well to the existing Tanglehead manifold

Subsea UK to sponsor MATE ROV competition for second year. Subsea UK announced today, at Subsea Expo, that it will sponsor an initiative which inspires budding subsea engineers for a second year. The body which represents the £9billion subsea industry has now committed £20,000 to the Scottish MATE ROV competition. The initiative, organised by the Robert Gordon University, encourages young engineers to design and test underwater machinery with help from industry mentors.

Nautilus Minerals Inc. (TSX:NUS, OTCQX:NUSMF, OTC:NUSMF Nasdaq Intl Designation) (the "Company" or "Nautilus") announces that the Solwara 1 Joint Venture (comprising Nautilus 85% and Eda Kopa (Solwara) Limited 15%) has been advised that Factory Acceptance Testing (“FAT”) on the Subsea Slurry and Lift Pump (“SSLP”) has commenced at the GE Oil & Gas manufacturing facility in Houston, USA.

Aker Solutions was recognised as the best subsea company of the year at the Subsea UK awards last night and David Bloom of Subsea 7 was honoured for his outstanding contribution to the subsea industry. The awards, which seek to celebrate the achievements of companies and individuals in the £9billion subsea industry across the country, were presented at a gala dinner during Europe’s largest subsea-focused exhibition and conference – Subsea Expo

Valeport’s new fastCTD Profiler is designed to deliver high quality CTD casts at rapid drop rates. Created for coastal and oceanographic profiling, this new profiler is an evolution of Valeport’s popular miniCTD instrument. The system incorporates Valeport’s world-class technology to allow the fastCTD Profiler to deliver the highest quality profiles in a lightweight and robust package

Ocean Installer has been awarded three significant contracts for subsea installations and tie-in operations for Statoil on Johan Sverdrup, Oseberg Vestflanken and Gina Krog. The three awards constitute a significant portion of Statoil's planned subsea construction work on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for the 2017 season.

Mersey Maritime has announced that Bibby HydroMap are among the finalists for an Innovation Award at the 2016 MMIAs Bibby HydroMap's entry was centered on the launch of their survey ROV d'ROP in 2015, an innovative design that is set to alter the competitive landscape of shallow water remote survey and inspection. Short for 'dynamic remotely operated platform', the flexibility of the d'ROP allows it to effectively meet the needs of many industry sectors, including offshore renewables, oil and gas, subsea power and telecomms cables.

Hawboldt Industries is pleased to announce David Marchetti has joined the company in a senior sales role. Marchetti brings to Hawboldt over 27 years of experience in operations, manufacturing, engineering, project management, and aftermarket / customer service, including extensive experience with ROV systems, and subsea oil and gas operations. Marchetti has held various positions with companies such as Schilling Robotics, GE Vetco Gray, and FMC Technologies, and most recently held the position of VP of Operations - Subsea at Forum Energy Technologies

Ashtead Technology is publishing a White Paper at Subsea Expo to demonstrate how a new approach to the installation and integrity management of subsea systems can significantly reduce risk and cost in subsea operations. The leading, independent provider of subsea technology and equipment has developed an advanced suite of integrated subsea monitoring and data systems to support critical aspects of construction and integrity management.

Geosciences and engineering service provider Next Geosolutions has been awarded a Geophysical, UXO & Geotechnical contract to Prysmian SRL for the MONITA Project in the Adriatic Sea. Through the collaborative effort of the survey team, Atlas Professionals successfully secured exclusive supplier status to Next Geosolutions for the whole project.

The growing economic importance of the aquaculture industry in the marine environment, and the opportunities for technology transfer are highlighted by the day-long ‘Aquaculture’ conference stream on Wednesday 16 March at Oceanology International 2016 (OI 2016) the world’s largest exhibition and conference for marine science and ocean technology (London’s ExCeL, 15-17 March). This follows the successful debut of the topic at OI in 2014. Like all the component parts of Oceanology International it is free to attend, online registration is at www.oceanologyinternational.com.

This week marks a significant milestone for subsea engineering company SMD as the MV Happy Delta, loaded with the world’s first deep sea mining vehicles, leaves the port of Tyne. In late 2007 SMD was awarded with a contract to design and build the world’s first deep sea mining vehicles for Canadian listed company Nautilus Minerals. Eight years on, having worked in close partnership with the customer, this massive feat of engineering is complete. The SPTs and associated equipment, totalling over 1000 Tonnes, have now been loaded onto the vessel which has set sail for Duqm Port in Oman where they will undergo further testing.

Nautilus Minerals Inc. (TSX:NUS, OTCQX:NUSMF, OTC:NUSMF Nasdaq Intl Designation) (the "Company" or "Nautilus") announces that the Solwara 1 Joint Venture (comprising Nautilus 85% and Eda Kopa (Solwara) Limited 15%) has taken delivery of the three Seafloor Production Tools (“SPTs”) from Soil Machine Dynamics Limited’s (“SMD”) facility in Newcastle upon Tyne.

Submission Date Extended to 15 February Present Your Paper at ATC 2016

Independent subsea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) service provider ROVOP and wireless instrumentation and control solutions developer WFS Technologies have today, (Monday 1st February), announced a new collaboration effort to reduce certain operating costs by up to 80% and extend asset life by years.

The contribution of the monitoring of offshore structures to reduce risk and improve reliability is key to achieving operational efficiencies in the offshore oil and gas industry and is a new topic to come under the conference spotlight at Oceanology International 2016 (OI 2016), the world’s largest marine science and ocean technology exhibition and conference (ExCeL London, 15-17 March).