Shell Starts New Gulf of Mexico Field ahead of Plan

Royal Dutch Shell on Thursday announced the start of production at the Kaikias field in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico, around one year ahead of schedule.Production from the subsea deep water development, which will reach 40,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, comes after Shell reduced its costs by around 30 percent to allow it to generate profit at less than $30 a barrel, the company said."We believe…

Tidal Project Begins Construction on Subsea Platform

Understanding the Bay of Fundy's powerful tides is getting easier, thanks to  a new advanced sensor platform being built for the Minas Passage. Simon Melrose, the platform project manager for the Fundy Ocean Research  Center for Energy (FORCE), speaking at the Nova Scotia Energy Research and  Development Forum today, announced construction contracts for a new  underwater platform designed to measure…

Real-time Oceanographic Equipment Installed at Port Everglades

Real-time tides, currents, water levels and other metrological information at Broward County’s Port Everglades is now readily available to the public thanks to an advanced sensor device developed and installed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).“Boaters and commercial mariners will be able to make safer choices based on the data from this equipment because it gives real-time information and forecasts,” said Port Everglades Deputy Port Director Glenn Wiltshire.

ASL Builds Custom Instrument for Hydrothermal Vent Flow

ASL Environmental Sciences Inc. has been awarded a $500,000 contract by the University of Georgia to build a reciprocal transmission acoustic scintillation instrument to measure the flow dynamics of a hydrothermal vent plume for a research project led by Dr. Daniela Di Iorio of the Department of Marine Sciences. The instrument will be installed at the Ocean Networks Canada NEPTUNE cabled observatory at the Endeavour hydrothermal vent site…

Bert Instruments Adds Nexus USBL to Its Equipment Pool

Since 1993 Florida based Bert Instruments’ team of consultants has been providing marine geophysical and environmental studies in the U.S., Caribbean and Latin America for petroleum companies, the U.S. Department of Defense, major Universities and private companies. The company’s expertise covers both hydrographic and oceanographic surveys and is headed up by electronic engineer Humberto Guarin PhD…

BAE Systems Starts Construction on GulfMark PSV

BAE Systems’ shipyard in Alabama has begun construction on the first of two platform supply vessels (PSVs) for GulfMark Americas, Inc. Executives and employees from both companies gathered recently at the BAE Systems’ facility in Mobile to oversee the initial cutting of steel for the vessel’s first module, which is expected to be delivered in the second half of 2014. The BAE Systems-built 300-Class Green DP2 vessels are designed by MMC Ship Design & Marine Consulting, Ltd.

L-3 Klein to Showcase System 5900 Advance Multi-Function Sonar Platform

At the Sea-Air-Space 2013 Show being held April 8-10, 2013, L-3 will display its Klein S5900 Side Scan Sonar which is now in rate production. L-3 will also answer questions concerning its full line of side scan and multi-beam sonar products. The MIL/COTS S5900 Side Scan Sonar represents Klein’s advanced multi-function sonar platform and includes the following key features: high resolution multi-beam side scan sonar…

Flight MH370: Latest Fugro AUV Joins the Hunt

Fugro took delivery of the Hugin 1000 Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV), the Echo Surveyor VII, in December 2014. Depth rated to 4,500 metres, the new AUV now holds the record for the deepest Hugin AUV dive, surveying in water depths surpassing 4,200 m. As the latest addition to Fugro’s AUV fleet, the Echo Surveyor VII is specifically designed for high resolution and efficient survey operations in water depths reaching 4,500 metres.

Five Minutes with John Tamplin Founder, Seafloor Systems

Can you tell us how you came to be involved in the subsea industry with a short career background prior to Seafloor Systems? I was a Naval Hydrographer and Sonar Technician with an EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal) Unit prior to entering into the private sector. My job in the Navy entailed using sidescan sonar to detect and locate undersea mines as well as underwater search and recovery operations. Once I detached from active duty, I was hired by Reson, Inc.

James Cameron Gifts 'Deepsea Challenger' to Woods Hole

The Explorer and filmmaker James Cameron partners with Woods Hole Oceanographic Intitution to accelerate  technology development. The partnership aims to stimulate advances in ocean science and technology and build on the historic breakthroughs of the 2012 Cameron-led Deepsea Challenge expedition exploring deep-ocean trenches. The announcement comes on the one-year anniversary of Cameron's unprecedented solo dive to 35…

Subsea UK to Sponsor MATE ROV Competition

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, organized by the Robert Gordon University, encourages young engineers to design and test underwater machinery with help from industry mentors.

New Satlantic SUNA V2

The new SUNA V2 with shortened path length and adaptive sampling is finally here! The new SUNA V2 represents the latest advance in UV nitrate technology that broadens previous operational ranges to include extremely turbid environments. This highly anticipated UV nitrate sensor raises the bar for continuous nitrate monitoring and extended deployments in both freshwater and marine environments.

Atlantic Canada Profiles: SubC Imaging

SubC Imaging, located in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, creates some of the most advanced underwater imaging systems in the world, including state-of-the-art cameras, lights, lasers and DVR Overlay solutions for media management. Since its founding in 2010 SubC has developed an international clientele in the offshore energy, ocean sciences and aerospace and defense sectors with clients in over 20 countries.

New Alkaline Battery System for the Oceanographic Market

The new Energy Sales Pressure-Tolerant Battery System (PTBS) is an alkaline battery solution specifically for the oceanographic community, set to be unveiled at Oceanology International North America, February 14-16, in San Diego. Energy Sales, Inc. said its new design replaces the need for housings made of titanium or other costly advanced composite materials. Working with the University of Washington Applied Physics Lab (UW/APL)…

Ocean Mapping: Fugro Partner with Shell on X-Prize

Fugro will partner with the Shell Ocean Discovery XPRIZE to support first round testing of the global, three-year competition, which incentivizes development of rapid, unmanned and high resolution ocean mapping technologies. Fugro’s role is to provide high resolution deepwater baseline bathymetry data over a 500 sq. km competition area. The company has recently collected more than 1 million sq. km of high resolution bathymetry data per year globally…

PSAT Used for Trout Study on Lake Superior

For the last decade pop-up satellite tags (PSAT) have been used to track migrations of our most important marine mega fauna such as bluefin tuna, great white sharks and other underwater species. Recent technological advances in tagging have finally allowed for the same technology to be transferred to fresh water. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources in conjunction with the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee and U.S.

Rovco Dives Into International Waters

UK-based start-up Rovco has taken its firsts steps into international waters and made significant progress towards growing its global footprint following the completion of two subsea survey contracts in Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The contract awards saw Rovco perform advanced subsea survey work in Fiji and Oman, using its SubAtlantic Mojave, Seaeye Falcon and VideoRay Pro 4 ROVs. Launched in September…

Atlantic Canada Profiles: Kraken

St. John’s, Newfoundland based Kraken Sonar is a leader in delivering advanced Synthetic Aperture Sonar systems. Kraken’s goal is to bring innovative and disruptive technologies to the maritime sector, while reducing costs and increasing capability. Kraken believes that by using the latest technologies available, and not being tied to legacy architectures, it can advance marine technology at a pace equivalent to consumer electronics sectors, while keeping it affordable.

Powerful Submarines Join Israel’s Navy

The Israel Navy’s fourth submarine, the ISS Tanin (Crocodile), is expected to become fully operational in a few weeks and participate in naval operations. The nuclear-capable submarine boasts an array of sophisticated weaponry, as well as the latest in intelligence-gathering technology. It stands at a whopping 68 meters long, compared to 57.3 meters on average for other submarines. The navy’s fifth submarine…

AMS Secures $3.5M to Fund Autonomous Ocean Monitoring

Marine data services company Autonomous Marine Systems Inc. (AMS) announced it has secured $1.6 million in seed funding, which, together with the $1.9 million in grant funding that the company won in 2015, will help the company advance existing contracts with customers in the Department of Defense and offshore energy industry, and allow the company to pursue interest from other private and public sector customers both domestic and international.