Alu Design, Oceaneering Strike Long-term Deal for Commander

Alu Design has signed an initial two-year framework agreement with Oceaneering, a world leader in providing specialized oilfield engineering products and services, for the supply of an advanced, newly developed operator chair. Christened Commander, the high-specification chair has been designed to meet NORSOK S-002 and other stringent international standards. The Kristiansand, Norway-based business…

Airmar Acquires Marport Commercial Fishing Division

Airmar Technology Corporation, a company that designs, engineers and manufactures ultrasonic transducers and sensor technology, announced that it has acquired substantially all of the assets of Marport Deep Sea Technologies’ Commercial Fishing division, a leading developer of advanced sonar technology. Airmar will also acquire the Marport name and the web domain as a part of the transaction. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed.

ROV Navigation Specialists CDL Taken Over by Teledyne

California-basedTeledyne Limited, has acquired Aberdeen, Scotland's C.D. Limited (CDL) a leading supplier of subsea inertial navigation systems and motion sensors for a variety of marine applications. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. CDL designs and manufactures a variety of sensors including gyrocompasses, attitude and heading reference systems, and inertial navigation systems. In particular…

TMC, Allseas Wet-test Robotic Nodule Collector Vehicle in Port of Rotterdam

The Metals Company (TMC), a company extracting battery metals from seafloor polymetallic nodules, said it had together with its strategic partner and shareholder, Allseas, successfully completed deployment and wet-test commissioning of their pilot robotic nodule collector vehicle.Allseas-designed pilot nodule collector vehicle was deployed from the Hidden Gem (ex-Vitoria 10000) vessel and lowered to…

Subsea Technology & Rentals Invests in iXblue Technologies

Subsea Technology & Rentals (STR) announced its continued investment in iXblue subsea navigation systems.STR’s investment includes the acquisition of iXblue’s long baseline (LBL) system; Canopus, making them the first rental company to offer the system for hire. Part of iXblue’s sparse LBL solution, Canopus brings together intelligent transponders, Ramses transceivers, Inertial Navigation Systems (INS), and Delph Subsea Positioning Software.

National Maritime Museum acquires Liquid Traces: The Left to Die Boat Case from Forensic Oceanography

The National Maritime Museum -- Royal Museums Greenwich, UK -- has recently acquired Liquid Traces: The Left to Die Boat Case, a video made by Forensic Oceanography researchers Lorenzo Pezzani and Charles Heller in 2014.Forensic Oceanography is a project that emerged out of Forensic Architecture based at Goldsmiths, University of London. Liquid Traces interrogates the impact of policies and practices of abandoning migrant vessels in distress in overlapping jurisdictions…

European Commission Finances Renewable Energy Projects

The Commission has awarded over €1.2 billion to 23 innovative renewable energy technology (RES) projects. The projects cover a wide range of renewable energy technologies from bioenergy (including advanced biofuels), concentrated solar power and geothermal power to wind power, ocean energy and distributed renewable management (smart grids). The projects will be hosted in 16 EU Member States: Austria…

Arctic Navigation Training Center Opened in Russia

OAO Sovcomflot opens its Saint-Petersburg captain & senior officer training & engineering centre (TEC) for Arctic offshore operations. The opening of the modern training centre in Russia’s maritime capital marks an important milestone in the implementation of the SCF development strategy which provides for an expansion of company participation in oil & gas projects in the Arctic and sub-Arctic. Sovcomflot vessels provide year-round support for large offshore energy projects…

Astrium Extends Agreement with Intelsat

Astrium Services, a global provider of satellite communications-enabled solutions, and Intelsat S.A., a provider of satellite services, signed a multi-year renewal agreement for C-band capacity to be used by Astrium Services' maritime customers in the Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean, North Sea and Gulf of Mexico. The agreement will enable the new Business Communications unit of Astrium Services to continue meeting the high bandwidth requirements of C-band customized VSAT users…

Advances in Sea-State Forecasting

Marine operations such as offshore oil and gas operations, renewable energy projects and shipping depend on high quality information on sea-state (wave height, period, direction, steepness) for economic and safety decision making. The information currently available is based on atmospheric/ocean models and lacks sufficient temporal and spatial resolution. “Wave conditions are always changing and can vary tremendously over a period of a few hours”, said Chelsea’s Technical Manager, Paul Bolton.

OTC Announces Spotlight on New Technology 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 at 1600 hours, 6 May, in Reliant Center. The Spotlight on New Technology Awards, which are for OTC exhibitors…

Kongsberg Offshore Vessel Simulator for Bibby Ship Management India

Bibby Ship Management India Pvt. Ltd contracted Kongsberg Maritime to deliver a Kongsberg Offshore Vessel Simulator (KOVS) including an upgrade of the customer’s existing Kongsberg Dynamic Positioning (DP) simulator in Mumbai. This extension to the Bibby Training Institute Mumbai represents the first KOVS in India and was commissioned to strengthen Bibby’s ability to conduct advanced training courses for Indian seafarers.

Sonardyne Receives Queen’s Award for 6G

Sonardyne International Ltd. has been formally presented with the Queen’s Award for Enterprise by the Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire. Dame Mary Fagan presented the Award in the Innovation category for Sonardyne’s Sixth Generation (6G) product platform during a visit to the company’s head office and manufacturing facilities in Yateley, Hampshire. As part of her visit, the Lord-Lieutenant was given a tour of Sonardyne’s campus…

Ricardo to Support Kongsberg WFMS Development

Ricardo and Kongsberg have signed a framework agreement that will see Ricardo support the development of the Kongsberg Wind Farm Management System (WFMS) as well as related condition monitoring systems for a range of other industrial sectors. The Kongsberg WFMS is a turbine independent decision support system. It surpasses the functionality found in wind farm supervisory control and data acquisition systems…

CTI SonarWiz

Chesapeake Technology  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 advanced wide swath bathymetry with no nadir gap and true co-registered dual frequency side scan sonar.

KEP Releases New HD Video Management Systems

Kessler-Ellis Products (KEP), a manufacturer of type approved displays, computers and peripherals, announced the release of its two new high definition video management systems, the HD-SDI (High Definition Serial Digital Interface) Professional and the HD Sport Cam. Able to record in high definition 1080p resolution at up to 60 frames per second, the new KEP cameras are IP68 waterproof rated– submersible to two meters for one hour.

Sensors Track Gulf of Mexico's Nitrate Pulse

A new U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) report describes how advanced optical sensor technology is being used in the Mississippi River basin to accurately track the nitrate pulse to the Gulf of Mexico. Excessive springtime nitrate runoff from agricultural land and other sources in the Mississippi drainage flows into the Mississippi River and downstream to the Gulf of Mexico. This excess nitrate contributes to the Gulf of Mexico hypoxic zone…

Rayotek: Seeing Under Pressure

According to Bill Raggio, Rayotek Scientific isn’t specifically a maritime company, but it definitely is part of San Diego’s “Blue Economy.” “We’re both an engineering company and a sapphire and glass manufacturer. We makes specialized glass for windows and sight windows, diffusers, pressure vessels, hydraulics and boiler systems, submarine periscopes and camera covers,” says Raggio, Rayotek’s chief technology officer.

Transocean Drilling Rig Fleet Update Summary

Transocean Ltd. has issued a monthly Fleet Update Summary which includes new contracts, significant changes to existing contracts, and changes in estimated planned out-of-service time of 15 or more days since January 16, 2014. The total value of new contracts since the January 16, 2014 Fleet Status Report is approximately $66 million. Estimated 2014 out-of-service time increased by a net 150 days,…

Shell Advances Peterhead Clean Energy Project

Shell has signed an agreement with the U.K. Government to progress the Peterhead Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) project to the next phase of design. The project, led by Shell, with strategic support from SSE, owners of the Peterhead gas power station in Aberdeenshire, aims to capture10 million metric tons of CO2 over 10 years. This will generate enough clean electricity to power the equivalent of 500,000 homes a year.