Fugro has been awarded a contract by Indian oil and gas company, ONGC, for the provision of ROV services on board the drillship Sagar Vijay. The contract, which was signed at ONGC’s offices in Mumbai, involves providing support for deepwater drilling operations off the east coast of India, in depths up to 900 metres.

Global-leading energy services company Proserv has been awarded a multi-million pound contract with Statoil for the provision of production control equipment in Norway. Proserv will supply five wellhead hydraulic power units (HPUs) for Statoil’s Gullfaks oil and gas field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea which is undergoing an extensive topside upgrade programme. The design, manufacture and supply of the workscope will be carried out by Proserv’s specialist engineering and project teams in Stavanger, Norway. Work has already begun on the manufacturing of these systems and all five are expected to be delivered to Statoil by 2017.

Fugro is to supply ROV drilling support services on board the Ocean Guardian MODU under a new contract awarded by Dana Petroleum (E&P) Ltd. Operating one of its fleet of FCV 600 ROVs, specifically designed for North Sea drill support activities, Fugro will carry out drilling and completions projects at the Dana-operated Western Isles developments in the northern North Sea.

Dutch contracting company, Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors B.V. [Van Oord], have purchased a suite of Gemini 720is multibeam imaging sonars, in the week of its launch at Oceanology 2016, 15 - 17 March, ExCel, London.

Van Oord Dredging and Marine Contractors, a leading contractor for dredging, marine engineering and offshore energy projects has selected Valeport’s SWiFT SVP for its various survey activities. The SWiFT SVP is designed to ensure a seamless workflow and has an integral GPS to geo-locate every profile. The compact unit features high accuracy sound velocity, pressure, temperature, salinity and density measurement, plus integral GPS and re-chargeable battery. Suited for coastal, harbour and inland hydrographic survey use, Van Oord is to deploy the SWiFT SVP as part of their operations worldwide

Utility companies have been laying pipes and cables across the ocean floor for more than a century. Prior to the introduction of GPS, marking their position was a difficult and tedious task, fraught with error. It is extremely important to know the exact location of existing lines before undertaking dredging operations or when new pipes and cables are laid down. Regulations require they be buried from several feet to several meters under the bottom to prevent snagging by boat anchors and fishing trawls. The amount of overburden typically makes it impossible to find these lines with conventional metal detectors as the burial depth is beyond their detection range. Two pieces of equipment that have proved most effective are the pinpointing magnetometer and the cable tracker. The pinpointing magnetometer is a very sensitive instrument that locates iron and steel pipes buried up to 16 feet in the bottom, and the cable tracker is powerful enough to detect a power or communications cable at more than 30 feet away.

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has been invited to assist with the Oil Companies International Marine Forum (OCIMF) working group on the revision of ‘Mooring Equipment Guidelines’, the third edition - MEG3 - which was published in 2008.

The rise of ‘ROV DP’, the capability to hold an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) stationary in the water column, has led to an increase in the sharing of ROV-mounted sensors, for ROV positioning, imaging and survey purposes. A workshop, organised by the International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) during Oceanology International 2016 (OI2016), will discuss the opportunities and challenges arising from this shared use of sensors and consider the future for this developing field of technologies.

Fugro has been awarded an inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) contract by Petrobras in Brazil. Under the contract Fugro will deploy its new 83-metre ROV support vessel, Fugro Aquarius, for the IRM activities. The contract duration is one year with an option for an additional year.

Ocean Installer has been awarded three significant contracts for subsea installations and tie-in operations for Statoil on Johan Sverdrup, Oseberg Vestflanken and Gina Krog. The three awards constitute a significant portion of Statoil's planned subsea construction work on the Norwegian Continental Shelf for the 2017 season.

Geosciences and engineering service provider Next Geosolutions has been awarded a Geophysical, UXO & Geotechnical contract to Prysmian SRL for the MONITA Project in the Adriatic Sea. Through the collaborative effort of the survey team, Atlas Professionals successfully secured exclusive supplier status to Next Geosolutions for the whole project.

Aker Solutions won a front end engineering design (FEED) contract from Statoil for the Trestakk field tie-in to the Åsgard A production vessel in the Norwegian Sea. The company also secured a separate concept study order for a low well-pressure project at Åsgard A.

Fugro has been awarded a contract by Esso Exploration and Production Guyana Limited, an ExxonMobil affiliate, for survey services at a deepwater field development offshore Guyana. The contract provides for autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) geophysical survey and an environmental baseline survey, along with shallow geohazard and geotechnical coring.

Mexican national oil company, Pemex, has awarded a further extension to Fugro’s contract to support its exploration drilling activities in the Bay of Campeche.

Ocean Installer has been awarded an offshore wind contract with Norddeutsche Seekabelwerke GmbH. This strengthens Ocean Installer’s position in the European offshore wind market.

Ocean Installer has signed an amendment with Statoil for riser replacement operations at the Troll C field. This includes options for work at the Vigdis field. The work will be executed under the SLMP Marine Installation Contract.

Subsea training facility, The Underwater Centre, is preparing for changes to the prerequisite requirements for experienced commercial air divers which will come in to play in April 2016

HARKAND and its local consortium partner TOS Angola Lda has secured a three-year contract to deliver inspection, repair and maintenance (IRM) services in Angola for a major international oil company operating in the West Africa region.