Oil prices edged higher on Wednesday, reversing earlier losses, and Brent held near $30 a barrel as potential OPEC+ plans to deepen supply cuts were tempered by demand concerns exacerbated by a possible second wave of coronavirus infections as countries ease lockdowns.

Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic with SARS-CoV2 infecting millions of people and resulting in thousands of hospitalizations and deaths worldwide. Research examining the origins and structure of the virus, its pathogenesis, and the clinical features of its acute presentation is growing at a fast pace. However, as a nascent pandemic, the long-term sequelae to be expected in those who have survived the acute disease are largely unknown. SARS-CoV2 infection manifests primarily as atypical pneumonia, but in severe disease other complications are common, including cardiac and thromboembolic disease. Scuba diving is a passion for many recreational divers, but, more importantly, it also represents a critical component of the commercial diving industry and scientific research.
 
UCSD runs a diving medicine clinic that sees approximately 250 divers per year, most of whom are employed as commercial and scientific divers. As society begins to re-open after quarantines, many of these divers are presenting to our (and others’) clinic requesting guidance and clearance on returning to dive after the pandemic.

House Democrats released their latest bill Tuesday designed to blunt the coronavirus pandemic's devastating effects on the economy and health-care system.

Offshore vessel provider Esvagt has decided to streamline its operations and reduce pay to its workers and management to combat the consequences of the decreasing energy prices and COVID-19.

The development of the world’s first autonomous and electric container vessel Yara Birkeland has been paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the changed global outlook, Norwegian company Yara informed.

Classification society Bureau Veritas (BV), a provider of testing, inspection, and certification services, has noted a 900 per cent rise in demand for the remote inspection of offshore assets and equipment since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.

On Monday morning an automated driverless truck for containers delivered containers to load a containership and collected unloaded containers from the vessel at the Port of Xiamen, passing a trial run as part of a project aimed at developing 5G smart ports!

 

 

 

 

Many industries now are struggling to attract and retain the talent they need to continue growing.  Recruiting and retaining the next generation of divers needs to be a priority as they will determine the future of the commercial diving industry.

 

Ghana’s government is seeking a unitization agreement between the partners in the offshore Afina and Sankofa fields, according to the African Energy Chamber.

Western Europe’s maintenance, modification and operations market will likely take a major hit in 2020, according to Rystad Energy, thanks to severe spending cuts and COVID-19 transportation restrictions.

Equinor and SSE Renewables plan to build a new Operations and Maintenance (O&M) base at the Port of Tyne, UK, to service the 3.6 GW Dogger Bank offshore wind project.

The more common type that we’re been seeing lately are the self sealing or hydraulic fittings. Of those, you can choose a couple of options. The first of which is the kind of material it’s made out of. Brass is the metal of choice but stainless is also available. You really can’t go wrong with either choice.