The magazine of choice for Subsea Construction and ROV/AUV/USV Professionals. Welcome to ROV Planet!
Once again we have a fantastic line-up of features, news, and editorials covering all things ROV. As the price of oil drops below $30/bbI, Westwood Douglas gives us an analysis of the expected work class ROV expenditure in the next 4 years, focusing on drilling and construction support, IRM markets, and regional variations. We also take a look at Nautilus Minerals’ pioneering Solwara project; they’ve recently began testing their custom-made new subsea mining vehicles. We’re very excited for this one as in the not-so-distant future subsea mining will become an industry where ROV support operations will be needed. We’ll also be looking at the AVM technology developed by JAMSTEC and Nissan, in order to allow ROV pilots to control seabed crawlers from a bird’s eye view, making obstacle avoidance and navigation even easier. Then we will give you a tour of the Oceaneering ROV Center in Batam, Indonesia and Liz Corbin reports on a highly eventful Oceans’15 conference and exhibition held in Washington, DC. Finally, we have some good news on the horizon: in spite of these turbulent times a new ROV company, Oceana Subsea, has been formed. They tell us why they’re so enthusiastic about the future. We’ve got a lot to look forward to, so sit back and enjoy our sixth issue!