The waters on the Aasta Hansteen field are deep, very deep, as much as 1300 metres to be precise, but for the deep-sea fish there was much to watch on the field this year. Pipelines, risers and spoolers have been installed and hooked up to subsea templates and umbilicals that were installed last year. The pipelines have been pressure-tested and prepared for production, and mooring lines have been carefully installed on the seabed – everything has to be ready before the platform arrives in 2018.

Rem Offshore, the Oslo-listed vessel owner, informed that Arild Myrvoll will resign as the company’s CEO effective October 10, 2016. Arild Myrvoll succeeded Åge Remøy, majority owner and founder of Rem Offshore ASA, as the CEO on May 01, 2016.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) decided at its recent meeting in Algiers to curb production, reportedly the first time since 2008. The cartel reached an agreement to limit production to between 32.5-33 MMb/d. Reuters said OPEC estimates its current output at 33.23 MMb/d, and quoted Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganesh as saying it decided to decrease production around 700,000 b/d.

International certification body DNV GL revealed Thursday that it is collaborating with Royal Dutch Shell plc, Statoil ASA, Lundin Petroleum, Siemens, Honeywell, ABB, Emerson and Kongsberg Maritime to develop an industry best practice for addressing the cybercrime threat.

U.I. 2017 is now accepting abstracts for presentations on Commercial Diving, Remotely Operated Vehicles, Manned Submersibles, Instruments and Sensors, Sonar and Acoustics, Ocean Engineering, Marine Salvage and Shipwrecks, AUV, ASV and UUV Technology. Presentations should describe novel methodologies and technologies that solve customer problems in today's cost-conscious environment. U.I. invites all contractors, manufacturers, engineers, clients, and all other industry stakeholders (both inland and offshore) to showcase your accomplishments, challenging projects, lessons learned, new gear, or innovative approaches to operations that address common customer issues in either the commercial diving or ROV track. Go to the Underwater Intervention website and upload your abstracts and papers. Deadline for submission is October 20, 2016

As a valued industry stakeholder, your participation is vital to the outcome of this study. As you know, our communications offerings include UnderWater magazine, UnderWater Today e-newsletter, ADCI Advisory Notice, ADCI TV, our websites, ADCI Membership Directory, Online Buyers' Guide, conferences, social media offerings and more. The link to our survey can be found here and your responses will be kept in strict confidence. With your help, the association will gain a better understanding of how we are communicating with our members and stakeholders in today's constantly changing environment. Your participation in this survey will also help us identify a definitive set of best practices that will help us communicate with you even more efficiently than we have done so already. Again, the survey will take approximately 10 to 15 minutes to complete. I look forward to continuing to provide more value, more services and more benefits to you throughout the coming ADCI membership year! Taking the survey gives you a chance to win a $500 gift card!

Geodetic Offshore Services Ltd (GOSL), a major operator in the Nigerian energy industry, has purchased two Applied Acoustics’ Nexus USBL positioning systems to deploy on its various offshore projects including underwater installation, diver monitoring, seabed surveys and ROV operations.

Danish company Maersk Oil has started drilling of the first production well on the Culzean field off UK on Wednesday, September 29. The well is the first of six production wells to be drilled on the high pressure/high temperature (HPHT) field, with continuous drilling activity planned over the next five years.

A proposed UK-based diving and underwater research tank named ‘Blue Abyss’ has been selected as one of the nominees in the ‘New directions’ category for the Enterprise Europe Network Awards.

Greensea, creator of OPENSEA, the universal marine industry operating platform, has been selected by VideoRay as the software provider for the new Mission Specialist ROV. Greensea provides navigation, advanced autopilots, and automation for VideoRay's powerful new customizable vehicle.

EPA enforcement is becoming a more prevalent issue for vessels importing into the U.S. This has been in the regulations for a while but has rarely been enforced. Before a few weeks ago we had only been asked two or three times in 15 years for the EPA conformity of the engines in a boat. Within the last month U.S. Customs and Border Protection has started requesting this on a regular basis and in Miami, Customs is requiring the WPA 3520-21 Engine declaration form be submitted at the time the importation is filed or they will not accept the entry.