OTC Announces 2013 “Spotlight on New Technology” Award Recipients

The Offshore Technology Conference (OTC), which takes place May 6– 9, in Houston, has announced 15 technologies that will receive the 2013 Spotlight on New Technology Award recognizing innovative new products that provide significant impact for offshore exploration and production. The awards will be presented May 6, in Reliant Center. The Spotlight on New Technology Awards, which are for OTC exhibitors…

Safety Drives Digital Plant Upgrade, Says Aveva

Aveva’s new business paper examines how 3D laser surveying technology can transform brownfield asset information. Aveva announced its publication of a new business paper, Seeing Through the Fog, describing how recent advances in both 3D laser surveying and Information Management technology combine to enable the capture and use of an accurate digital counterpart of a brownfield plant. It explains how…

Subsea Hardware Spending to Double to $124 Billion

Douglas-Westwood (DW) forecast subsea hardware spending is set to double to $124 billion during 2013-2017 compared to the preceding five-year period. The new third edition of Douglas-Westwood’s Subsea Hardware Market Forecast has launched analyses the market through to 2017, examining the key activity trends to provide detailed insight for major players and new entrants alike. “The prospects for the subsea hardware sector look good…

The Black Sea is a Goldmine of Ancient Genetic Data

When Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) marine paleoecologist Marco Coolen was mining through vast amounts of genetic data from the Black Sea sediment record, he was amazed about the variety of past plankton species that left behind their genetic makeup (i.e., the plankton paleome). The semi-isolated Black Sea is highly sensitive to climate driven environmental changes, and the underlying…

Red Bull Founder Buys DeepFlight Super Falcon Submersible

Hawkes Ocean Technologies said that Dietrich Mateschitz, cofounder of the energy drink company Red Bull, has ordered a DeepFlight Super Falcon submersible. The state of the art, two-person winged submersible craft is being delivered to Laucala Island Resort, on Mr. Mateschitz’ private island in Fiji. DeepFlight Super Falcon, Hawkes Ocean Technologies’ production manned submersible, has been hailed as the Lear Jet of the oceans. Mr.

Metrol Boosts Efficiency with Miko Magnets

Metrol Technology disclosed that it developed a subsea tool from the technology of Miko pipe magnets. The company said it is currently gaining cost and time benefits through having perfected the use of powerful permanent magnets when positioning instrumentation on seabed structures. Most Metrol products are the result of advanced research and innovative technology but it only took some alert lateral…

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…

Exploring the Abyss

GEOMAR & theABYSS AUV Study the S. For most of human history, the size and depth of the Earth’s oceans have made it nearly impossible for surveyors and scientists to collect valuable and comprehensive data on the seafloor. In recent years, this led to the question:  “Why is it that we cannot map our own planet as well as we’ve mapped the Moon and Mars?”  Since the development of sonar instruments at the turn of the 20th century…

Unmanned Surface Vessels: Wave Glider SV3

In recent years, the proliferation of unmanned surface vessels deployed for hydrographic missions has mushroomed as the collaborative effects of propulsion, software and sensor technologies has cumulatively made these vessels, large and small, more capable for a multitude of missions. In this edition, and on the heels of the Ocean Business exhibition last month in Southampton, Marine Technology Reporter examines recent developments.

GE Oil & Gas Sign GofM Deepwater Contracts

GE Oil & Gas has signed an $84-million agreement with PEMEX Exploration and Production to supply and install subsea wellheads for PEMEX’s deepwater and ultra-deepwater drilling projects in the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf of Mexico is a strategic zone for the hydrocarbon industry, since it is estimated to hold more than 50 percent of Mexico’s potential or prospective resources. However, such reserves are located in deepwater and ultra-deepwater sites…

Ross Laboratories Delivers Turn-Key Sweep System

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers – St. Paul District has taken delivery of a turn-key multi-channel sweep system from Ross Laboratories of Seattle, Wash. The system is installed on a 24 foot Armstrong Marine aluminum work boat. Ross Laboratories was awarded the contract to provide the boat and survey electronics as a "turnkey” system. The Ross “Mini-Sweep” is a small boat multi-channel survey system designed for inland rivers and shallow water surveying.

Mobilized For High Resolution Bathymetric Surveys

Continuing their program of investment and development Coastline Surveys has successfully completed the first phase of the permanent installation of a full bathymetric survey suite on board their 24m survey vessel, the MV FlatHolm. The range of high-tech state-of-art survey equipment includes the R2SONIC 2024 High Resolution Wide Band Multibeam Echosounder, an IxBlue Hydrins Inertial Navigation System and an Edge Tech 4200 Dual Frequency sidescan sonar with Discover and SonarWiz software.

Kiewit to Serve as MCV Shorebase for MWCC

Marine Well Containment Company (MWCC) announced today that Kiewit Offshore Services (Kiewit) in Ingleside, Texas has been selected as the shorebase location to house equipment to outfit the company's modular capture vessels (MCVs) in the event of a deployment to a deepwater well control event. The equipment, which includes modular processing facilities for the MCVs and the centerpiece of the containment systems…

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.

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.

Schlumberger Launches Industry-first GoM Survey

Schlumberger expanded its Gulf of Mexico multiclient wide-azimuth seismic data portfolio by launching a new survey in the Campeche Basin. The acquisition of the industry’s first multiclient wide-azimuth survey offshore Mexico will cover 80,000 sq km using two fleets of WesternGeco vessels, including Amazon Class, the world’s first purpose-designed 3D seismic vessels. “Building on our experience in the U.S.

SBG Systems' INS Chosen for Shom Fleet

Shom, the French national hydrographic and oceanographic office selected SBG Systems’ inertial navigation sytems to renew their whole fleet of INS. They chose Navsight Apogee INS for their speedboats and survey vessels for both shallow and deep-water real-time bathymetric surveys and Qinertia PPK software for post-processing tasks.Shom has 3 major objectives: national hydrography and cartography, defense support in hydro-oceanographic fields…

Research Vessel Atair to be Commissioned this Spring

A new liquefied natural gas (LNG) powered survey, wreck-search and research vessel built by German Naval Yards Kiel is currently undergoing installation and finishing works at Fassmer in Berne, Germany prior to being commissioned this spring.Ordered by the German Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), the new research vessel will be homeported in Hamburg, replacing the previous Atair, which entered operation in 1987.At 75 meters long and roughly 17 meters wide…

DCSA Sets Track and Trace Standards

The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA), a non-profit group of nine major ocean freight carriers, published track and trace standards in an effort to unify information sharing and further digitalization goals."This is the first of many initiatives to be put forth by DCSA to transform inefficient practices and accelerate digitization through a unified industry effort," said the Container line group.Carriers…

USGS, ERDC Install Underwater Asian Carp Deterrent System

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center (ERDC) and partners installed a temporary, experimental underwater acoustic deterrent system (UADS) at Mississippi River Lock 19 between Keokuk, Iowa, and Hamilton, Illinois, Feb. 3. The deployment is part of a study to understand how invasive Asian carp respond to acoustic, or sound, signals.“If this UADS is successful in deterring Asian carp…