Today, Fugro has finalised the divestment of its non-core trenching and cable laying business to Global Marine Group (GMG), a global, leading supplier of subsea cable installation and maintenance services.

Global subsea equipment specialists, Ashtead Technology, has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Steven Thrasher as regional vice president for the Americas.

Only two weeks remain to submit your abstract for consideration at MCEDD 2018. We have received quality abstracts from 40 global operators and contractors and we aren’t stopping yet. The 2018 Advisory Board will begin the voting and selection process on December 16th. Be sure to submit your abstract before then to ensure it is taken into consideration for the 2018 Technical Program.

Global subsea equipment specialists, Ashtead Technology, has strengthened its leadership team with the appointment of Steven Thrasher as regional vice president for the Americas. Bringing almost 20 years’ experience in the subsea industry, Thrasher, who will be based in Houston, Texas, will head up Ashtead’s US operation as it gears up for further growth in the Gulf of Mexico (GoM) and neighbouring markets.

What can be done when disaster strikes and the unforgiving sea claims expensive or invaluable objects? JW Fishers has assisted in the recovery of countless ships, anchors, aircraft, indispensable equipment, and, in the most devastating of cases, love ones. One of the most effective tools for underwater search and recovery is a Side Scan Sonar (SSS) system. The JW Fishers’ line of SSS systems are able to search a large area quickly and to produce a detailed image of the ocean floor, regardless of water clarity.

Greensea, creator of OPENSEATM, the universal marine industry operating platform, today announced that Chief Marketing Officer and Vice President of Sales, Marybeth Gilliam has been appointed Chief Operating Officer, a new position at Greensea. Gilliam joined Greensea in 2015 and has lead the company through an explosive period of sales growth.

Request for Tutorial Presenters Due January 8, 2018 The Local Organizing Committee is accepting applications for tutorials to be presented at the OCEANS’18 MTS/IEEE Kobe / Techno-Ocean2018 at the Kobe Convention Center in Kobe, Hyogo on Monday, May 28, 2018. We request Tutorial submissions be made by January 8, 2018. Submissions will be evaluated as they are received. Acceptance notices will be sent as soon as the committee completes its review and makes a decision so those providing the tutorials can plan and prepare. Final notice of acceptance will be issued no later than January 31, 2018 in order to facilitate registrant sign-up. Submissions that are received after January 8 will be considered, but at the discretion of the local technical committee, these will be treated as free-of-charge workshops if space is available, and there will be no fee paid to the provider

Marine technology specialists, Seatronics, an Acteon company, has increased its investment in Sonardyne hybrid navigation technologies following the purchase of four SPRINT Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) and four Syrinx Doppler Velocity Logs (DVLs). The significant equipment investment, which also included six ROVNav 6 acoustic transceivers, will be added to Seatronics’ existing SPRINT rental pool in Aberdeen from where it will be made available to support oil and gas field development projects across the globe.

Fugro is to join a campaign to find the lost First World War Australian submarine, HMAS AE1. From its advanced survey vessel, the Fugro Equator, skilled survey personnel from Fugro will use a state-of-the-art multibeam echosounder to conduct a bathymetric survey and a sophisticated autonomous underwater vehicle for close examination of the search area.

Registration for Oceanology International 2018, the world's premier event for ocean technology and marine science is now open. Taking place on 13-15 March 2018, the free-to-attend exhibition and conference will bring together the latest technologies and thought leaders worldwide, giving buyers and suppliers the opportunity to do business, network and learn in one location.

C-Kore Systems, a UK based company, has recently celebrated the deployment of its 100th C-Kore unit. This milestone was reached on a fault-finding campaign with a major oil company in the North Sea. The units have simplified subsea testing in over 30 different fields worldwide and helped both major oil companies and their installation contractors on installation/construction and fault-finding campaigns. The easy-to-use units save customers time and money by considerably reducing the time needed for electrical testing, providing quick and accurate insulation resistance and continuity measurements of electrical lines.

Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd (SMD) has successfully completed an upgrade to the MD3 (multi-depth) plough recently acquired by Orange Marine. The plough, which was delivered to the SMD Services team for refurbishment in July, received a full control system upgrade and extensive overhaul. SMD Services’ dedicated team of engineers based at Port of Tyne in South Shields assessed the equipment and devised a detailed refurbishment strategy to enable it to work as new. The project involved replacing the plough’s original control system hardware which had become obsolete. SMD also supplied a passive scissor frame assembly to be fitted to the launch and recovery system.

Trelleborg’s offshore operation is committed to continuing its work in Mexico to help educate and develop specifications aimed at improving fire safety solutions used in harsh offshore environments. To this end, Hans Leo Hals, Managing Director for Trelleborg’s offshore operation based in Norway, met with leading oil and gas representatives in Mexico over a number of months to support in improving the safety of Mexico’s offshore assets in the Gulf of Mexico.

Global subsea equipment specialist, Ashtead Technology, has boosted its rental fleet with an investment of £1 million in the latest iXblue technology over the past 12 months. iXblue is a leading global provider of innovative subsea solutions for navigation, positioning and imaging. Ashtead Technology is currently the only rental company to offer the iXblue GAPS-NG system with the new Telemetry capability, a high performance Ultra Short Baseline (USBL) positioning system for locating subsea assets. The company purchased two of the systems in January this year.

Trelleborg Sealing Solutions launches a unique rotary seal with “outstanding performance and reliability” when running at greater speeds and higher temperatures. The innovative Turcon® Roto Glyd Ring® V is a premium double-acting rotary seal, which is primarily intended for double-acting pressure applications within severe working conditions that require extended rotary service. The seal, specifically engineered for machinery where a high Pressure-Velocity (PV) value is required, allows equipment to run at the highest possible speeds in extreme pressures allowing for an extended service life.

Trelleborg’s offshore operation recently developed a new Rotating Buoyancy Module system for buckling mitigation for subsea pipelines. The advanced solution is engineered to roll on the seabed to reduce lateral friction and berm creation thereby creating repeatable and predictable pipeline behavior.

We are pleased to invite you to the OTO’18 (OCEANS’18 MTS/ IEEE Kobe / Techno-Ocean 2018) which will be held May 28~31, 2018 in Kobe, Japan. The event is hosted by three joint-organizers – the IEEE Oceanic Engineering Society (IEEE/OES), the Marine Technology Society (MTS) and the Japanese Organization of the Consortium for Techno-Ocean 2018 (CJO).

UK-based subsea engineering specialist Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd (SMD) has successfully completed first stage testing in a pioneering project which is set to uncover valuable European mineral resources. SMD is technical lead on the VAMOS (viable alternative mine operating system) project, a 42-month international research and development venture, which is part-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme. At a cost of approximately 12.6 million Euros, SMD and its partners in the VAMOS Consortium, have designed and built a robotic underwater mining prototype with launch and recovery technology to perform field tests at four EU mining sites.