BP announced Thursday that it has signed an agreement with the Egyptian Minister of Petroleum to accelerate the development of the Atoll gas discovery, located in the North Damietta Offshore Concession in the East Nile Delta, offshore Egypt. Full field development of Atoll, which is estimated to hold 1.5 trillion cubic feet of gas resources and 31 million barrels of condensates, is expected to consist of two phases.

Scotland has granted Norwegian oil and gas major Statoil a license to build the U.K.’s first floating offshore wind farm. The development will be known as Hywind and is based on the Hywind demo prototype. The project will be the world’s largest offshore wind farm. Construction is set to begin in 2017. Electricity generated from the floating wind turbines would send electricity about 15 miles through a subsea cable to a pilot facility in Peterhead, which is on Scotland’s northeast coast.

Rolls-Royce has signed a contract with Huangpu Wenchong Shipyard in China for a package of advanced ship equipment for a new 124 meter long Dive Support Vessel (DSV). The vessel will be designed by Skipsteknisk in Norway, and is to be delivered in 2017 to its owner, Singapore based Jumeira Offshore Pte. Ltd. It will be equipped with the latest control system for dynamic positioning (DP3) as well as four of the latest Bergen B33:45 generating sets. The total delivery also includes main propulsion, tunnel thrusters and remote controls.

Hydroid, Inc., a subsidiary of Kongsberg Maritime and a leading manufacturer of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs), today announced that it has recognized Japan-based SEA Corporation as an authorized REMUS Service Center. Hydroid presented SEA Corporation with a plaque on October 12, recognizing its commitment to excellence in customer service and technical expertise.

Seatronics, an Acteon company, has formed a new partnership with LateraL AS, a Norwegian subsea tooling firm specialised in improving offshore performance through its innovative product range. The new agreement will provide Seatronics’ global customer base with access to the FlexiCal product line. FlexiCal is an ROV mounted caliper that allows for direct measurements from point-to-point with real-time readout.

Ashtead Technology has secured a global asset management agreement with Blue Ocean Monitoring to store, maintain and supply underwater gliders for ocean data monitoring. The deal will see Blue Ocean Monitoring expand its service offering globally with Ashtead providing asset management services and project support from its offices in Aberdeen, Houston and Singapore, the company informed.

Underwater Intervention 2016
Call for Papers

Divers have discovered a pinhole cargo tank leak and several open hatches on an oil-laden tanker barge that prompted an emergency environmental response in late October. On Nov. 5, the U.S. Coast Guard said on-scene responders were evaluated and released from the hospital after dive surveys on what's thought to be the Argo, a barge that sunk in Lake Erie filled with oil in 1937.

Danielle Ferraro is a second year master’s student studying oceanography in University of Delaware’s College of Earth, Ocean, and Environment. Last Thursday, she was a lucky member of the UD scientific research team that dove in the OceanGate human operated submersible near the outer breakwater of the Delaware Bay. It is the first time that Cyclops 1 has been used on the East Coast of the United States.

Under oceans across the world, hundreds of shipwrecks lie silent and forgotten. Having set sail to discover, trade, or wage war, the boats never reached safe harbour and exist now as time capsules beneath the waves. When they took to the seas, some of these vessels were the state of the art, laden with some of the most advanced technology of their era. Now, thanks to the most advanced tech of our time, some long-sought wrecks are finally being found and explored for the first time.

Unfortunately for divers, their work gear always demands a suit – there’s no such thing as casual Fridays. Though we think of it as a "suit", divers don’t always had the luxury of wearing a sleek, shiny ninja spandex. Once upon a time, people used really, really baggy uniforms. Or metal shells. Or...barrels?

Oceaneering has successfully piloted a remotely controlled vehicle (ROV) from shore via satellite link. The demonstration took place in the Gulf of Mexico with one of the company’s Nexxus ROVs on board Oceaneering Intervention IV.

RE2 Robotics has secured a Phase I small business innovation research (SBIR) grant to design inflatable underwater manipulator arms for the US Navy's Office of Naval Research (ONR). Under the Phase I programme, the company will be responsible for the design of a light-weight inflatable underwater manipulation system for autonomous underwater vehicles (AUV).

BIRNS, Inc. has launched a new range of coaxial subsea connector contacts with unheard of performance characteristics. The BIRNS Millennium™ series connectors developed with the new contacts have had groundbreaking testing results, including a maximum insertion loss of 0.7 dB at signal frequencies to 3GHz, with an associated maximum SWR (Standing Wave Ratio) of 1.7:1. Even more remarkable, the new coax contacts withstand open face hydrostatic pressure to depths of 1433m so far in initial testing protocols, with more testing currently under way. Additionally, the new design provides incredible ease of assembly and connects directly to a standard MIL-STD-348 SMA connector.