Topaz Energy and Marine (“Topaz”), a leading offshore support vessel company, has received the “Deal of the Year” Award at the 2016 Seatrade Global Awards in London, for its contract win with BP Exploration (“Caspian Sea”) Limited (“BP”).

The Industry Technology Facilitator (ITF) has appointed Richard Luff to its board as a non-executive director. A chartered Civil Engineer, Richard has over 40 years’ experience in the oil and gas sector and currently serves as INTECSEA’s senior vice president for the Europe and Africa region.

Software that enables acoustic data to be streamed in real-time from subsea structures as they are installed has helped to reduce non-production time (NPT) for independent oil and gas producer, INPEX, and its survey contractor, Neptune Geomatics, during construction of the Ichthys gas field, offshore Western Australia.

ROCOL, an established manufacturer of lubricants for global industries, has introduced two new products to its environmentally friendly BIOGEN range. BIOGEN Spray and BIOGEN Fluid have been launched to support the BIOGEN WIRESHIELD product, a market-leading success due to its “no compromise” performance and green credentials. All three products provide lubrication for wire ropes and ROV umbilicals across a number of industries including offshore, subsea, port and docks, shipping, dredging, deep sea fishing, mining, construction and general lifting.

Due to technical issues over the weekend that prevented the online submission of abstracts to our technical progam, we are extending the submission deadline until Wednesday, May 11, 2016. We are writing to you in our capacity as Technical Program Chairmen for the MTS/IEEE OCEANS'16 Conference, to be held in Monterey, California, 19-23 September 2016. OCEANS'16 will be a tremendous opportunity to focus on topics of interest to you in all fields of Marine Technology and Ocean Engineering. We are trying to develop a Technical Program that will appeal to the significant interests.

Forum Subsea Rentals, a subsidiary of Forum Energy Technologies, Inc., has further strengthened its global offering of state-of-the-art rental equipment by placing a multi-million dollar equipment order with subsea technology provider, Sonardyne International Ltd. This order demonstrates Forum’s commitment to long-term growth and continued investment in new equipment to ensure customers are offered the latest, cost-effective rental solutions coupled with assurance of reduced downtime by utilising new assets.

International lubricants manufacturer ROCOL has made a key appointment to support its growth objectives in the North Sea oil and gas market. Martin Simpson joins the UK-based business as sales engineer for the offshore and marine sectors, with responsibility for the UK and north-west European market. ROCOL, which has manufactured high-performance lubricants for more than 130 years, supports an international portfolio of customers from a network of 12 offices worldwide.

A team led by AJ Jain, Harkand North America Managing Director, has agreed to a management buyout (MBO) of Harkand’s North American and African business. The new company, to be named ETHOS OFFSHORE LIMITED, will continue to provide subsea engineering and construction services to Harkand’s existing US, Mexican and West African client base to market-leading standards. The new company, backed by investment funds advised and managed by Oaktree Capital Management, L.P. (“Oaktree”), is expected to have a contracted backlog of $145 million worth of projects. The move also could potentially safeguard more than 100 jobs across North America, Africa and Mexico.

Attempting to relocate underwater objects in open ocean or a low visibility environment can be a difficult and time consuming task. Acoustic pingers and transponders solve this problem. These acoustic beacons are attached to an underwater site or instrument package and transmit a sonar signal. A gun-like device, either carried by a diver or deployed from a boat, detects the signal and guides the operator directly to the beacon. Today these acoustic devices are being employed by many marine scientists and researchers to keep track of expensive oceanographic equipment allowing instruments to be quickly relocated and retrieved.

Xodus Group AS has been awarded a framework agreement by Lundin Norway AS to provide engineering studies and verification services for its developments on the Norwegian Continental Shelf. The agreement is for four years with potential extension for two years. It will draw on Xodus' expertise from across the company's wide ranging technical capabilities as it calls for concept screening, feasibility studies, concept selection and pre-engineering, subsea and facilities including modifications, debottlenecking and process optimisation studies.

SUVA, FIJI – Research vessel (R/V) Falkor will return to port today after 28 days at sea conducting pioneering studies including mapping the Earth’s newest island landscape in the Kingdom of Tonga (Southwestern Pacific). NASA has partnered with Schmidt Ocean Institute and Columbia University to produce a high resolution submarine topographic map of the undersea portion of a volcano that first appeared in January 2015 as a result of a “surtseyan” style eruption involving the dynamic interaction of hot volcanic materials and sea water.

The challenges surrounding the delivery of safe and efficient marine operations throughout the offshore energy and maritime industries will be the focus for a major conference to be held in Aberdeen on 9 and 10 of June. Measures to enhance safe operations, minimise costs and maximise economic control and loss prevention will be examined during the two-day event, organized by the leading global international representative body for maritime professionals, The Nautical Institute. The step change in competencies, efficient operations and appropriate manning required to achieve this will also be discussed. Aberdeen was chosen to host the AGM conference due to its role as the European operations centre for the oil and gas industry and the significant change occurring within the industry due to the lower for longer oil price environment.

Global-leading energy services company Proserv has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract from Apache Corporation for work on the UK Continental Shelf. Proserv will supply a subsea control system and associated topside and subsea interface equipment for use on the new Callater wells located south of the Beryl Alpha platform. The latest award comes after Proserv successfully completed work for Apache on the Bacchus and Aviat extension wells for the provision of subsea control modules and services in the Forties field. The design, manufacture and supply of the workscope will be carried out by Proserv’s team of subsea experts in Great Yarmouth, UK.

Leading procurement services specialist, Craig International, has launched a ‘win-win’ platform to help oil and gas companies off-load surplus stock worth billions of pounds and buy products and equipment they need at competitive prices. Craig Collaboration connects companies looking to sell stock with those looking to buy. Oil and gas companies around the world have billions of pounds of surplus stock, much of it sitting in costly storage and Craig Collaboration will allow them to realise value from this.

A team from the Royal New Zealand Navy has recently finished an intensive ROV training course, delivered by The Underwater Centre at the Naval Base at Devonport, New Zealand. The nine-day course focused on in-water operation training of the Saab Seaeye Falcon ROV, which is regularly used by the Navy for reconnaissance and security missions.

Subsea IMR provider, N-Sea, has been awarded a new contract with Galloper Offshore Wind Farm Ltd (GWFL). The contract for pre-construction unexploded ordnance (UXO) clearance works commenced in April 2016 and includes UXO risk management, target investigations and clearance on the Galloper Wind Farm, off the coast of Suffolk.

Aker Solutions and ABB agreed to build on their combined strengths in subsea, power and automation technologies to develop solutions that will improve oil and gas production for the global energy industry.

Technip has signed a four years extension of its five-year initial contract signed in January 2011 with Petrobras S.A. for its Flexible Pipes Logistic Base (BAVIT), located in Vitória, Brazil.