France Picks: GE is the One for Alstom

France chose General Electric to form an alliance with Alstom on Friday - rejecting an offer from Siemens and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries - but said the deal still needed some work and added it would buy a 20 percent stake in the hotly-contested company. Economy Minister Arnaud Montebourg said he had used a newly- created state decree to reject both of the existing offers as not being in France's strategic interest, and had formulated fresh demands to GE Chief Executive Jeff Immelt.

Titanic & the Launch of a Landmark Safety Agreement

When the RMS Titanic made its debut in 1912, the ship epitomized everything new and advanced about shipbuilding and construction. It was the largest ship of its day, a steel-jacketed vessel that featured cutting-edge safety measures such as 16 watertight compartments, 15 bulkheads and 11 remotely activated watertight doors. The ship had her own waterworks, an electrical power plant more powerful than the then typical city power plant, and two wireless telegraphs.

Sea Forecasting Project Aims for Commercial Service

WaveSentry, a Technology Strategy Board funded project backed by a consortium of industry and academic experts, successfully concluded at the end of April with an event to present the key outcomes of the project explore technologies and opportunities for further development of wave measurement and maritime forecasting. The WaveSentry project consortium aimed to develop a new information and forecasting tool for managing the risks of marine operations in adverse sea states.

Finalists Complete for $2 Mln Wave Energy Prize

U.S. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced that nine teams have been named finalists in the Wave Energy Prize—a 20-month design-build-test competition—and will proceed to the next phase of the competition. The nine finalists and two alternates, identified from the 17 remaining official qualified teams, will continue their quest to double the energy captured from ocean waves and win a prize purse totaling more than $2 million.

Europa Identifies 3 New Prospects Off Ireland

Europa Oil & Gas (Holdings) plc, the AIM listed oil and gas exploration, development and production company focused on Europe, has provided further details regarding the recently awarded Licensing Option 16/2 (‘LO 16/2’) in the southern Porcupine Basin, offshore Ireland, which includes three new prospects mapped on 3D seismic with gross mean un-risked prospective resources of 895 million barrels of oil equivalent (‘boe’).

Offshore Floating Production Market Update

Currently, 320 oil/gas floating production units are now in service, on order or available for reuse on another field. FPSOs account for 65% of the existing systems, 76% of systems on order. Production semis, barges, spars and TLPs comprise the balance. Total oil/gas inventory is down two units since last month – two off-field FPSOs have been scrapped. Another 27 floating LNG processing systems are in service or on order. Liquefaction floaters account for 15%, regasification floaters 85%.

General Dynamics Introduce Airborne Acoustic Processing System

General Dynamics Canada says more powerful, reliable and accurate detection of underwater threats is now possible with the introduction of its newest airborne acoustic processing systems. Venom, the UYS-505 system, is the latest addition to General Dynamics’ family of acoustic processing offerings. It leverages commercial-level advances in hardware and the latest innovations in signal processing technologies to maximize the detection of submerged threats in deep and coastal waters.

CTI’s SonarWiz Now Supports EdgeTech Systems

Chesapeake Technology Inc. (CTI), a company in real-time acquisition and GIS based processing software for seafloor mapping, announced an advance to its flagship software SonarWiz processing with the addition of a Real-Time Acquisition Server for the EdgeTech 4600 and recently-introduced EdgeTech 6205 interferometric bathymetry systems. The EdgeTech bathymetry systems are unique in the industry offering…

US Navy Strengthens Battlespace Situational Awareness

The U.S. Office of Naval Research has awarded BAE Systems an $11 million contract to develop next-generation electronic warfare (EW) technology that will quickly detect, locate, and identify emitters of radio frequency signals. Known as the Full-Spectrum Staring Receiver (FSSR), this technology will enable near-instantaneous battlespace situational awareness, emitter identification and tracking, threat warning and countermeasure and weapon cueing.

SeeByte Host UK Defense Secretary Fallon

U.K. Defense Secretary Michael Fallon has met with leading Scottish based companies that are bringing cutting edge technology to the front line. Fallon visited SeeByte, a software SME and Finmeccanica Airborne and Space Systems Division, Edinburgh, a defense electronics, communications and radar company. SeeByte provides the MOD with software that pilots its underwater unmanned vehicles (UUVs). The firm…

Virtual Aids to Navigation Mark Research Equipment

Vesper Marine will provide its Virtual Aid to Navigation technology to the French company CGG, a  geoscience company that provides geological and geophysical survey and analysis primarily to the oil and gas industry. In its ongoing quest to map the ocean’s floors, CGG survey vessels tow an array of cables in the water at a up to a 50 ft. depth, an array of cables that contain seismic energy sources…

New Survey Vessel for Port of London

The Port of London Authority (PLA) ordered a new purpose-built survey catamaran, a CTruk MPC19, due to enter service on the river Thames later this year. The vessel is will replace the PLA’s Yantlet vessel as she reaches the end of her service life, continuing the PLA Hydrography team’s survey work which facilitates safe navigation on the tidal Thames. As the U.K.’s busiest inland waterway, the river is a link for trade, travel and leisure and as home to the U.K.’s second largest port. Capt.

Metron Get Navy R&D LDUUV Contract

The Department of Defense award Metron Inc. a contract for development of a large displacement unmanned undersea vehicle (LDUUV). Metron, Inc., of Reston, Va.,is being awarded a $7,287,619 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract  to include in-lab integration and testing of autonomy and mission planning software with bench test hardware selected for deployment on the LDUUV. This one-year contract includes two…

Case Study: Surveying Wrecks around Estonia

Why is the Estonian Maritime Administration surveying old shipwrecks in Estonian waters? The mission of the Estonian Maritime Administration is to ensure safe navigation in Estonian waters. It is extremely important to identify all possible navigational hazards, including wrecks. Some of these wrecks, especially those lost during WWII, pose a potential environmental threat because of their cargo and fuel. High resolution Multibeam sonar systems help find and identify such wrecks.

MHI to Build for PGS

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) received an order for two vessels capable of three-dimensional (3D) seismic data acquisition for sea bottom resource exploration from Petroleum Geo-Services ASA (PGS). The order for the two vessels, which was signed on April 25 in Tokyo, was placed upon exercise by PGS of the option right that was provided when two same type vessels were ordered to MHI in April 2011.

SeaTrepid Opens SeaTrepid DeepSea, Adds Staff

SeaTrepid International LLC announced that it is forming a new division thus expanding its service offerings to include Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) mapping operations. “With SeaTrepid’s deep knowledge and expertise in robotic operations coupled with our deep talent pool, contacts and infrastructure, we are well-placed for an optimal and cost-effective alternative to current methods for deepsea mapping,” said SeaTrepid's CEO and founder, Bob Christ.

Aker, Fjords Join Forces

Aker Solutions and Fjords Processing have formed an alliance to develop technology and capabilities for advanced, cost-effective wellstream separation and treatment solutions for the subsea and topside oil and gas industry. The WellSep alliance will apply Aker Solutions' subsea processing experience and testing facilities and Fjords' topside and onshore separation technologies to provide complete solutions.

US, Canada, EU, Sign Atlantic Ocean Research Accord

The recently signed "Galway Statement on Atlantic Ocean Cooperation" concerns research into the workings of the Atlantic Ocean and its interaction with the Arctic. The alliance will build on existing bilateral cooperation agreements and projects with the aim of developing and advancing a shared vision for the Atlantic. For the European Union, the Statement was signed by European Commissioner for Research…

SoCal Tech Focus: LinkQuest

The new FlowQuest 600 Micro acoustic current profiler operates at 600 KHz. It is similar to the standard FlowQuest 600 acoustic current profiler in terms of functions and performance, but is much smaller and lighter. The FlowQuest 600 Micro current profiler is 13 cm in diameter and 21.0 cm in length, and weighs less than 1.6 kgs in water. It will mainly be used for inland discharge measurements but…

ABB Wins $12 Million Diesel Electric System Order

ABB, a power and automation technology group, recently won a $12 million order to supply electrical power and propulsion systems for a deepwater pipe laying vessel. The vessel, tentatively named Derrick Lay Vessel 2000 (“DLV2000”), will be constructed at Keppel Singmarine in Singapore and delivered in 2015 to Hydro Marine Services, Inc., a subsidiary of McDermott International, Inc. Developed by Keppel’s ship design arm…