Unmanned Vehicles May Soon Take Up Residency Subsea

Robotic systems are moving closer toward being able to “live” in subsea docking stations, as permanently installed subsea resident vehicles.For the 40 years that the oil and gas industry has been working subsea, there’s been a gradual evolution in the technology it uses. Remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), built to perform underwater tasks in place of divers, have evolved from fairly crude machines to today’s highly capable and complex vehicles…

Coast Guard Hearing on El Faro Sinking

The U.S. Coast Guard will conduct a public Marine Board of Investigation hearing into the loss of the United States-flagged steam ship EL FARO, and its 33 crewmembers. The first hearing session will focus on the pre-accident historical events relating to the loss, the regulatory compliance record of the EL FARO, crewmember duties and qualifications, past operations of the vessel and the Coast Guard’s Search and Rescue operations.

C-Innovation Chooses Kongberg AUV Systems

C-Innovation (C-I), a member of the Edison Chouest Offshore (ECO) group of companies and an integrated marine services company specializing in advanced subsea solutions has signed an agreement with Kongsberg Maritime to acquire four new Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV). The order adds significant AUV capabilities to C-I’s already established Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) fleet. C-I offers comprehensive subsea field development services…

iXBlue Subsea Acoustic Positioning System for C&C

Survey and mapping service provider for the land and offshore oil and gas industry, Houston's C&C Technologies, says it has bought the iXBlue fourth-generation GAPS USBL acoustic positioning system for the company's Mexico division. This will be the first time the system is directly available to customers in Mexico. The new system, which was launched by iXBlue early in 2014, will be used to track subsea…

BIG DATA: First Intelsat EpicNG Satellite Launched

The launch yesterday of  the Intelsat 29e, the first of the Intelsat EpicNG high throughput satellites, promises to usher in a new era of "Big Data" in the maritime sector, among others. The satellite was launched from French Guiana aboard an Ariane 5 vehicle. Manufactured by Boeing and equipped with advanced digital payload, Intelsat 29e will bring high throughput capacity in both C- and Ku-band to North and Latin America and the North Atlantic region.

Sunken Japanese WWII Battleship Found

Seventy years after the conclusion of World War II, philanthropist and entrepreneur Paul G. Allen has located the Musashi, one of the two largest and most technologically advanced battleships in naval history. Allen and his team of researchers began their search for the Musashi more than eight years ago. Using historical records from four countries, detailed undersea topographical data and advanced technology aboard his yacht…

New Digital CHIRP Side Scan Sonar System

Falmouth Scientific, Inc. (FSI) has launched its new HMS-624 digital CHIRP Side Scan Sonar System, offering dual simultaneous 100/400 KHz frequency operation. “A large percentage of our engineering and production teams, including VP of Engineering Fred Hegg and me, worked at Datasonics developing the first Digital CHIRP side scan sonar as well as their sub-bottom profiling systems” said FSI’s President and Chief Engineer, John Baker.

ABS Issues RP for Hybrid Riser Systems

ABS has published the ABS Guidance Notes on Subsea Hybrid Riser Systems, the first set of recommended practices for hybrid riser systems in the offshore industry. “The introduction of new approaches like those being considered for hybrid risers has the potential to positively impact safety,” explained ABS Chairman, President and CEO Christopher J. Wiernicki. Developed with industry partners for use in conjunction with the ABS Guide for Building and Classing Subsea Riser Systems…

Advancing Climate Change Research and Hydrocarbon Leak Detection

By Combining Dissolved Carbon Dioxide and Methane Measurements with ADCP Data. With the emergence of large-scale, comprehensive environmental monitoring projects, there is an increased need to combine state-of-the art technologies to address complicated problems such as ocean acidification and hydrocarbon leak detection. Carbon is a building block of life on earth and is a key element of many ocean chemical processes.

Makai Upgrades Cable Installation Simulation Software

Makai has released version 6.0 of MakaiPlan Pro, software for planning and simulating subsea power and telecom cable installations. MakaiPlan Pro includes the tools of MakaiPlan GIS cable route engineering software. In addition, MakaiPlan Pro allows the user to perform powerful and precise 3-D, dynamic simulations of a submarine cable installation. The operator can quickly simulate an entire cable lay in advance from the comfort of the office at up to 50 times faster than real-time.

SBG Names Swathe Services as UK Distributor

SBG Systems has appointed Swathe Services to be an authorized sales and support distributor for the marine hydrography market in the UK and Ireland. This includes all products within the Ellipse, Ekinox and Apogee product lines and includes the Split-Box with associated components. SBG Systems offers a complete line of high performance and miniature Attitude and Heading Reference Systems (AHRS), Motion Reference Unit (MRU)…

New Autonomous Control System Launched

Sea Machines Robotics of Cambridge, Mass. announced the release of its Autonomous Control System (ACS), an advanced vessel control system which converts manually piloted hulls to self-piloted Unmanned Surface Vessels (USVs). It is designed to be integrated into company-developed Sea Machine USVs or other commercial production hulls. The ACS allows for seamless transition between unmanned and manned operations and can be integrated into most OEM vessels…

New Gavia AUV: Operational in Batam

In January 2013 PT Java Offshore (Indonesia) completed the final training course on the operation and data processing for their new Gavia Surveyor Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), supplied by Teledyne Gavia (Reykjavik Iceland), a Teledyne Technologies Company, enabling full field operation. This is the first delivery of a fully capable, lowlogistics survey AUV into the offshore markets in the South East Asia region.

GE Wins More Than $600m to Expand Brazil’s Pre-Salt O&G Fields

In the last 12 months, GE has won contracts valued at more than $600 million to provide propulsion systems with customers in the pre-salt oilfield expansion off Brazil’s east coast. GE’s systems will power, propel, navigate, position and control drillships and also power and control the drilling process itself. Today, GE is in the process of building systems for 22 of the 29 drillships for the current phase of the Brazilian oil and gas exploration by Brazilian energy corporation Petrobras.

Wachs Subsea CPT Combination Prep Tool

When looking for an emergency preparedness system for the GoM and elsewhere, Chevron partnered with Wachs Subsea to create a highly automated pipeline repair system that utilizes our Combination Prep Tool (CPT) as the key operational component. The CPT-3, or Combination Prep Tool Generation 3, is a hydraulically powered subsea machining system equipped with three modules that perform five functions: cutting, beveling, counterboring, weld seam removal and FBE removal.

UDT 2014 Set for Liverpool, June 10-12

“UDT is a key event for us in this year’s exhibition calendar, drawing together global customers and suppliers involved in undersea defence technologies,” said Iain Kennedy, Strategy Director at QinetiQ. His thoughts were echoed by Richard Morgan, Managing Director at DSG Technology: “UDT is an excellent event, focused and well organized … UDT is always the first event in our diary and we look forward to another successful exhibition and conference this year.”.

Boskalis JV wins Santos Port dredging contract

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) and joint venture partner Van Oord have been awarded a contract by The Brazilian Ministry of Transport, Ports and Civil Aviation for the capital and maintenance dredging of the port of Santos, the largest port of South America. The contract carries a total value for the joint venture of approximately EUR 110 million. In the coming months, studies will be undertaken and the design of the navigation channels and berths of the port will be reviewed.

Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE Semi-Finalists to be Announced at OINA

Dr. Jyotika Virmani, a senior director at XPRIZE Foundation, a nonprofit innovation engine, will announce the semi-finalists of the $7 Million Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE during ‘Catch the Next Wave’ (CTNW), the future-focused conference taking place on the final day of Oceanology International North America (OINA) at the San Diego Convention Centre next week (February 14-16). The Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE is a global…

Liquid Robotics Launches Wave Glider SV3

Liquid Robotics announced the introduction of the Wave Glider SV3, a hybrid wave and solar propelled unmanned ocean robot. The Wave Glider SV3 incorporates the latest advancements in energy harvesting technology, providing the ability to utilize both wave and solar energy for forward propulsion. Customers will now have the ability to conduct missions, 24x7, through all weather conditions, across most of the planet to help research global problems such as global climate change…

Saab Seaeye’s Falcon ROV Gets a Boost

Saab Seaeye said it has enhanced the Falcon's intelligent control system with its advanced iCON behavior-based intelligent control architecture, meaning the electric robotic vehicle can now host many new features as an advanced platform for further automation and behavior-based software development. Station‐keeping and fine position adjustment is a new attribute that reduces the operator's workload by allowing them to concentrate on the task at hand.