Global skills and standards organisation OPITO has announced the shortlist for its Safety and Competence Awards 2017. The awards will take place as part of the OPITO Safety and Competence Conference (OSCC) on the 8th November at the Royale Chulan, Kuala Lumpur, and winners will be chosen under two categories, New Thinking and New Generation. Competing for the New Thinking award are ERGT, INSTEP and Wild Geese Group, while ETSDC, KMSTC and Wood Group Training will vie for the New Generation award.

Subsea UK’s flagship conference – final call for papers Industry experts are being urged by Subsea UK to showcase the most advanced technologies and lead discussions on the current and future subsea challenges at next year’s flagship event, Subsea Expo. The 13th annual conference, which takes place at the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre from 7-9th February 2018, will examine and debate key industry topics including global markets, ROV developments, subsea innovation and offshore renewables.

Subsea 7 S.A. announced that it has signed a letter of intent with Royal IHC in the Netherlands for the construction of a new reel-lay vessel and associated pipe lay equipment. The cost, excluding capitalised interest, is expected to be below USD 300 million with an early 2020 delivery. The firm contract with Royal IHC is expected to be awarded before the end of 2017, subject to certain conditions and final Board approval.

Energy services company Proserv has been awarded a series of contracts worth around $4m for its well severance, platform and FPSO decommissioning services in the Asia Pacific region.

ECA Group announces today that a new 5 years contract was awarded by French Ministry of Armed Forces for supplying consumables for French navy PAP demining ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles). The amount of this contract will be over 4M€ up to a maximum of 8 M€ depending on utilization frequency. In 1977, ECA Group delivered the very first mine disposal vehicles PAP to the French Navy. In 2017, forty years later, they are still in service with support from ECA Group.

Ocean Installer has been awarded a contract for subsea installations and tie-in operations for Statoil on Johan Sverdrup, as well as Utgard and Bauge.

Professor Bahman Tohidi, Director of the Centre for Gas Hydrate Research and Centre for Flow Assurance Research (C-FAR) at Heriot-Watt, has been given the International Lifetime Achievement Award at the 9th International Conference on Gas Hydrates, in Denver, Colorado.

Energy services company Proserv has been awarded a series of contracts worth a combined value of more than $11million USD for its production control new-build and after-market services in the Middle East. In the UAE, Proserv will be engineering and manufacturing wellhead control panels, hydraulic power units (HPUs) and chemical injection systems to national oil companies, service companies and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies, estimated to be worth around $10m. Key to the awards is the strong installation, commissioning and life of field service offering that is unique to Proserv in the region

MMT Sweden has been awarded a three-year contract by Nord Stream AG to inspect both lines of the Nord Stream Pipeline running through the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany. The external inspection of the pipeline will be executed by the joint venture between MMT Sweden and Reach Subsea.

Energy services company Proserv has recently been awarded three contracts worth a combined value of more than $2.5million (approx. 21.5m Norwegian Krone) for decommissioning work in the Norwegian North Sea. The firm’s Stavanger facility will provide cutting services as part of a full severance package covering subsea and topside work. Compared to more traditional approaches, the cutting technology solutions deployed by Proserv can save hours in well severance and plugging, which can lead to significant savings in day rates over a campaign. These awards build upon decommissioning successes for the company globally in recent months with around $8million worth of work secured in Asia Pacific, the UK and Gulf of Mexico.

Independent subsea remotely operated vehicle (ROV) service provider ROVOP has bolstered its US team after winning a raft of contracts worth around $19 million (£15million) including a two-year deal with a Houston-based global company.

Soil Machine Dynamics Ltd (SMD) are pleased to announce the signature of a contract with Van Oord for the manufacture and delivery of a QTrencher 1600. This contract follows the successful deployment of SMD’s QTrencher 1400 on Van Oord’s Gemini Wind Farm. Scheduled for delivery in Q1 2018, the high power trenching machine will be supplied with an SMD designed umbilical winch, along with jetting and mechanical cutting tools to tackle a wide range of seabed conditions. Additional functionality includes beach operation to offer cable installation for export and inter array campaigns. The equipment will be loaded directly onto Van Oord’s state of the art cable-laying vessel Nexus from SMD’s Turbinia Works in Wallsend, UK. The QTrencher 1600 is scheduled to be deployed from the Nexus onto various wind farm projects in 2018.

A leading manufacturer of sensors to measure maritime distances at sea has received a prestigious national award for their innovative targetless sensor. Launched last year, RangeGuard is the first sensor from Guidance Marine not to use physical targets. The innovative system was deemed worthy of the prestigious Dynamic Positioning 2017 Award, which can only be given to the developer of an innovative DP product or system, or contractor responsible for an especially innovative application of DP on a project.

Oilfield Helping Hands (OHH), a nonprofit charitable organization comprised of volunteers devoted to providing financial assistance to oilfield workers in financial crisis, has been named the 2017 beneficiary of the Offshore Technology Conference (OTC) Distinguished Achievement Awards Luncheon. OTC will host the Distinguished Achievement Awards Luncheon on Tuesday, 2 May 2017 at NRG Center in Houston. The event recognizes industry achievements, raises funds for a worthy cause and provides an excellent opportunity for industry leaders to network with colleagues from around the world.

ENPRO Subsea’s managing director Ian Donald has been recognised by his peers for his outstanding contribution to the sector at the prestigious Subsea UK Awards 2017. Mr Donald was commended for his pioneering work, which has seen innovative solutions redefine key sections of the marketplace, during a black-tie dinner attended by around 600 industry leaders in Aberdeen (Thursday 2nd February 2017). He was chosen to receive the accolade in light of his leadership, creativity and commitment to delivering results in both enhanced recovery and subsea decommissioning arenas.

The Hydro Group was named subsea company of the year at the Subsea UK’s annual awards while Enpro’s Ian Donald was recognised for his outstanding contribution to the industry. The awards, which celebrate the achievements of companies and individuals in the UK subsea industry, were presented at a gala dinner in Aberdeen during Subsea Expo - Europe’s largest subsea-focused exhibition and conference. The awards were presented in front of over 500 leaders from the subsea sector. Neil Gordon, chief executive of Subsea UK hosted the ceremony with former England rugby captain Matt Dawson as guest speaker. The top award, Company of the Year, was presented to The Hydro Group. With over 100 employees, the company is at the forefront in the development and innovation of subsea product technologies. In a period of tough external dynamics, The Hydro Group has focused on market diversification, while delivering profitable and steady growth based on its people and technology.

Xodus Group has won a contract with North Sea operator Apache to deliver subsea engineering services for two new infill well developments at the Nevis and Skene fields in the Northern North Sea. The project includes a novel idea of designing and fabricating spools with no requirement for metrology focusing on time and effort savings. The latest win follows a number of successful projects delivered for the operator over the last 18 months, including the concept, Front End Engineering Design (FEED) and detailed design studies for the Beryl field’s Far North Triassic (FNT) subsea tie-back, which was 4km in length

Fugro has been awarded a contract from INPEX Operations Australia Pty Ltd (INPEX) for subsea services to be executed across the Ichthys facilities in the Timor Sea, located approximately 220 kilometres from the coast of Western Australia. INPEX is Japan’s largest oil and gas exploration and production company.