Robotics: Autobots Transform in the Offshore Energy Sector

Robots and robotics have slowly been entering our lives, in various shapes and forms (and fictional characters), from self-driving household vacuum cleaners to highly automated manufacturing systems. Now they’re heading for the offshore world – in just as many shapes and forms.There could be a lot to gain from robotics, but platforms and offshore wind turbine structures are also very challenging places to put them on. For oil and gas, key drivers are around safety and cost .

Maersk Triple-E Ships Upgrade with Hull Performance Solutions

Jotun, the global leader in marine antifouling coatings, has signed a landmark agreement with Maersk Line to supply Hull Performance Solutions with SeaQuantumX200 for the Triple-E new build project. The Triple-Es are the world’s largest ships - renowned as much for their energy efficiency as their size. By upgrading to HPS with Jotun’s top-of-the-line SeaQuantum X200 antifouling coating, the Triple-E ships are expected to reinforce their energy efficiency advantage.

Fugro Gets Dutch Offshore Wind Zone Survey Job

Dutch company Fugro has secured the geophysical survey contract for the development of the Doordewind offshore wind farm zone in the Netherlands.The Doordewind project, led by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), is part of the Dutch Government’s Offshore Wind Energy Roadmap 2030, which aims to accelerate the development of offshore wind in the Netherlands.The survey work is scheduled to start…

Norwegian Parliament Strikes Deal to Advance Seabed Mining

Norway's minority government and two opposition parties have agreed to allow seabed mineral exploration in the Arctic region, they said on Tuesday, in a key step towards full-scale ocean mining.The deal comes as Norway hopes to become the first country to make deep-sea mining happen on a commercial scale and secure critical minerals and jobs despite concerns over the environmental impact and international calls for a moratorium.The amended version of the government's proposal…

Klein Selects Greensea Inertial Navigation

Klein Marine Systems chose Greensea Systems to provide SWaP-C optimized inertial navigation for its side scan sonar towfish products. The Greensea INSpect GS products use Greensea’s open architecture operating platform, OPENSEA, and a patent-pending heading alignment methodology.“We chose the Greensea INSpect GS product family due to the price/performance alternatives offered as well as the additional sensor options that it supports,” said Dean Fleury, Director of Engineering for Klein.

The APAC Offshore Market: Riding the Wave of Success into 2024 and Beyond

2023 was the first year of real recovery for owners in the offshore supply market and yet we have barely skimmed the surface of what’s to come.The market is still on an upward trajectory with charter rates accelerating month-by-month, availability changing day-by-day, leading to earnings doubling and, in some segments, tripling since the lows of 2020. Current rates will remind many of the glory days of pre-2014 with the demand for OSVs projected to remain elevated for years to come.In general…

SINOPACIFIC’s Design SPP17A Secures First Order from Mexico

Sinopacific Shipbuilding Group (SINOPACIFIC), has recently signed a contract with a Mexican shipping company, Naviera Petrolera Integral S.A. de C.V. for the construction of 3 (three) SPP17A vessels. All vessels will be built in SINOPACIFIC’s Zhejiang Shipyard and are expected to be delivered before the end of 2015. Following that, the new vessels will be used by PEMEX, Mexico’s largest governmental owned oil company, in their oil and gas development projects in the Gulf of Mexico.

Transformation in Maritime Industry Training

The 2019 Maritime Insights Database (MarTID) survey has just been launched. This annual survey and the resulting annual reports (available freely at www.MarTID.org) provide critical data on maritime training practices and trends useful to every segment of the maritime industry. As such, it is important that every seafarer, maritime trainer and maritime administrator working at a vessel operator or…

OceanServer Reports High Demand for Iver3 AUV

OceanServer Technology has received eight new Iver3 AUV orders for delivery to a variety of survey, research, military and water quality organizations, the company announced today. The Iver3-580 AUV is the third generation AUV produced by OceanServer and builds on the Iver2-580 that has recently been discontinued after 10 years of service and over 200 systems shipped. Research related vehicles will be delivered to Penn State University Applied Research Laboratory and other undisclosed customers.

Unique Group Partners with INNOVO, Kongsberg

Integrated subsea and offshore solution provider Unique Group has entered into a cooperation agreement with Aberdeen’s INNOVO. As part of the agreement, the companies will collaborate to provide sales and rental equipment and engineering solutions for the marine and oil and gas market sectors in the Middle East and South-East Asia region. INNOVO provides services and high technology equipment for renewables, oil and gas and marine business sectors.

NUWC Division Newport Highlights New Navy Projects During Industry Day

Naval Undersea Warfare Center (NUWC) Division Newport representatives gathered with 200 members of the Undersea Technology Innovation Consortium (UTIC) in Middletown on April 26 to discuss upcoming U.S. Navy projects and how industry can support them with rapid development, prototyping and testing of innovative technology.With more than 260 member organizations, UTIC is the national consortium of defense companies…

Ecuador Adds TRIAXYS Wave Buoys to Coastal Network

AXYS Technologies Inc. has recently delivered three more TRIAXYS Next Wave Directional Wave Buoys to Instituto Oceanográfico De La Armada (INOCAR) of Ecuador. These TRIAXYS buoys will be added to the existing coastal wave monitoring network of TRIAXYS buoys owned by INOCAR and deployed along the Ecuador coastline. The AXYS Services Team traveled to Guayaquil to provide instruction to INOCAR personnel on managing and operating the network and will visit again for continued system training.

JDR Cable Systems Hits Milestones in in Subsea Cable Facility Construction

Subsea cable supplier and service provider JDR Cable Systems (JDR), a part of the TFK Group, said Tuesday it had achieved several significant milestones in the construction of its new £130 million state-of-the-art subsea cable manufacturing facility in Cambois, near Blyth, Northumberland. JDR said the facility would expand the product offerings of both JDR and TFKable, including high-voltage and extended-length land and inter-array cables.

Picotech Debuts new range of Multibeam Echosounders

Picotech launched the PicoMB13X Range of Multibeam Echosounders with low SWaP-C for hydrographic survey onboard man-portable USVs and small survey vessels delivering superior quality survey data from ultra-compact units.The range comprises the PicoMB131, PicoMB132 and PicoMB133.

Subsea Munitions Response: Government Funding Available for Environmental R&D

The Department of Defense’s (DoD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) is seeking to fund environmental research and development in the Munitions Response program area. SERDP invests across the broad spectrum of basic and applied research, as well as advanced technology development. The development and application of innovative environmental technologies will reduce the costs…

New, High-Performing USV for Ocean Surveying

A new unmanned surface vehicle (USV) designed for the Chinese market offers an open and low-cost platform to measure water current and direction. Nortek China has integrated Doppler instrumentation on the vehicle to help better meet user requirements for ocean surveying.The new USV has an IPC (Industrial Personal Computer) as the main operation platform and uses Remote Desktop, a remote control technique, to communicate with all the instruments installed.

Columbia Class Subs Take Shape in Virginia

A plasma-burning machine cut the first steel plate that will be used to build Columbia (SSBN 826), the lead ballistic missile submarine. As Newport News continues its digital transformation, the event also marked the first class of submarines that will be built using fully digital blueprints.“Today is a historic day,” said Jason Ward, Newport News’ vice president for Columbia-class construction. “It has been a half century since Newport News Shipbuilding has constructed a ballistic submarine.

SBG Systems Unveils New IMU

Inertial motion sensing solutions provider SBG Systems has released the Horizon IMU, a FOG-based high performance inertial measurement unit (IMU) designed for large hydrographic vessels surveying harsh environments.Navsight Marine Solution consists in a powerful and ready-to-use inertial navigation solution dedicated to hydrographers. It is available at different levels of accuracy to meet the various…

Emerson, IPRES Enter Software Partnership

Emerson Automation Solutions has announced a business collaboration with IPRES (Integrated Petroleum Resource and Economic Service), an international company based in Norway that provides advanced software tools and services to the upstream oil and gas industry. Under the terms of the agreement, Emerson will sell IPRES’s flagship solutions IPRISK and IPRESOURCE to its existing and prospective customer base.

Dow and Telleborg Receive World Oil Award

Neptune  Advanced Subsea Flow Assurance Insulation System Named “Best Production Technology” of 2012. The winner of the 2012 World Oil Award for Best Production Technology is a breakthrough in subsea insulation developed by Dow Oil & Gas, a business unit of The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), in cooperation with multiple organizations, including Trelleborg Offshore, a leading provider of polymer and syntactic foam-based coating solutions for the offshore oil and gas industry.