Friday, November 22, 2024

Subsea Technology News

New Cloud Platform for Subsea Survey Data

Image courtesy TrueOcean

Subsea geo-information specialist TrueOcean GmbH launched a new digital platfom designed tor accelerate the transformation of marine data acquired by underwater sensors, including multibeam echosounders and related systems from any manufacturer, into actionable, easily shared information and insight via the cloud.In development since the Kiel, Germany headquartered company was founded in 2019…

FOW Players Target 132kV Dynamic Cables

The joint RenewableUK and Global Underwater Hub Cables conference. Photo Elaine Maslin

UK industry players are eying the development of 132kV dynamic array cables to meet the demands of ever larger turbines, but there are calls for standards to be agreed before they invest.The need for 132kV cables is being driven by the growth is turbine capacity to 15MW and beyond, with 20MW turbines even being discussed. These sizes out a strain on use of even the latest 66kV capacity cables…

MTR100: For USVs and AUVs, is it a Hydrogen Future?

The Maxlimer hydrogen configuration.  Image courtesy SEA-KIT International

Hydrogen has been making big headlines in the energy world. It’s one of the potential routes to deliver high density energy to transport and heavy industry – but also to marine applications, as well as a way to move and store renewable energy. Various uncrewed surface vessel (USV) developers, autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) builders and even subsea power delivery system providers…

First UMACK Anchor for CorPower WEC Installed off Portugal

Image courtesy CorPower

CorPower Ocean, Maersk Supply Service and Dieseko have installed the first commercial-scale UMACK anchor to support the HiWave-5 demonstration project. The anchor has been installed 4km off the coast of Aguçadoura, in northern Portugal, where it will be used to anchor the CorPower C4 Wave Energy Converter, as part of the HiWave-5 project.The UMACK technology is designed to provide a step-change improvement to the vertical holding capacity of pile-type anchors…

Floating Offshore Wind: Attention Turns Subsea for Power Transport

Image courtesy Aker Offshore

From being an ugly duckling, floating offshore wind is now the Cinderella of the offshore renewables world. Attention is now being paid to floating and even subsea substation concepts to help bring this power to shore. Over the past year, expectations around the growth in the floating offshore wind development have grown, significantly. Many are piling into the market, seeing that it could give them a chance to ramp up renewables capacity quickly…

Ecological Cable Protection in Long Island Sound

Photo courtesy ECOncrete Marine Mattresses

December 2020 marked the deployment of fifty 150-sq. ft. nature-inclusive ECOncrete Marine Mattresses, providing large-scale armoring and protection for the Northport to Norwalk Submarine Cable,  a 24 mile underwater electrical transmission cable under contract by Eversource and the Long Island Power Authority."  Photo courtesy ECOncrete Marine MattressesOperated by PSEG Long Island…

Autonomous Offshore Power Trials Get Underway off Hawaii

Image Courtesy Columbia Power Technologies

With the advent of autonomy on and under the water, part of the value proposition is the ability to stay at sea, on station, to exponentially increase efficiencies. Have the ability to repower at sea is central to this effort, as an increasing number of companies work to solve the inherent technical and logistic problems.Columbia Power Technologies (C-Power) is commencing a six-month sea trial to test and validate its SeaRAY autonomous offshore power system (AOPS)…

Increased Confidence in CO2 Storage

The bespoke drill rig being lowered over the side of the RRS James Cook. The rig is designed to push the curved steel pipe into the seabed sediment. Image: Copyright STEMM-CCS Project

If we are going to store large volumes of carbon dioxide (CO2) in depleted oil and gas reservoirs beneath the seabed we need to be sure that, in the unlikely event of a leak, we can detect it. A research expedition, carrying a world-first experiment designed to develop methods for the detection and monitoring of leaks, has just returned from the North Sea; it has been declared a great success.Climate change…

MTS, SUT to Collaborate

The Marine Technology Society and the Society for Underwater Technology announced that they have entered into a three-year Memorandum of Agreement to explore ways to work together to the benefit of their collective membership.Both SUT and MTS focus on the facilitation, development, and application of marine science and technology for purposes of exploration, understanding, and sustainable use of the ocean and its resources.

Sercel Delivers 508XT Acquisition Systems

Photo courtesy of Sercel

Sercel has announced the successful delivery of five of its state-of-the-art 508XT seismic acquisition systems to India’s national oil company, ONGC.ONGC selected Sercel’s cross-technology (X-Tech) solution to conduct various 3D surveys for a total of 40,000 channels across India in challenging environments, from jungle to steppe plain and even desert.The specific challenges faced across these terrains make the 508XT system a natural choice.

Efficient Wave-Generated Power … Really!

SurfWec Artist Concept. Images Courtesy:  SurfWEC LLC.

Wave-generated power could be considered the Rodney Dangerfield of offshore renewable energy sources; it gets no respect. There have been a number of high-profile, expensive failures that have conspired to give the sector a poor reputation despite a number of engineering advances. A new entrant is SurfWEC offering a patented “surf-making” Wave Energy Converter which has been in development since 2007.

Xodus Appoints Phil Cooper as New Director

The Scottish energy group Xodus Group has appointed Phil Cooper as a new corporate development director to support the continued growth of the company.The Aberdeen-based international energy consultancy said in a press release that Cooper has more than 35 years of experience and was most recently London general manager at Heerema Marine Contractors where he led a team of engineers engaged in heavy lift and subsea technical activities.Previously…

Schlumberger Bags Equinor Contract for Subsea Boosting System

Norwegian oil and gas firm Equinor has awarded an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to OneSubsea, a Schlumberger company.The contract is for the supply of the industry’s first all-electric actuated subsea boosting system for the Vigdis Field in the Norwegian North Sea.The scope of the contract includes a pump station, with a manifold foundation and protective structure…