Global Fusion, Inc., an international marine services company, is pleased to welcome Autonomous Surface Vehicles, Ltd. (www.asv.org.uk), to the Global Fusion family of companies. ASV will join C & C Technologies, Inc. (www.cctechnol.com) as a part of Global Fusion's Unmanned Systems Group.

Visiongain calculates that the global market for Unmanned Underwater Vehicles in the energy sector is worth $1.2bn in 2010. Oil and gas companies are rapidly expanding their use of underwater robotics technology with vehicles classified as Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUV).

LS Cable (Chairman & CEO Christopher Koo) announced on the 15th that the company has succeeded in the development and commercialization of an umbilical cable, a composite cable for offshore engineering, for the first time in Korea. The umbilical cable will be used for power supply and signal transmission/reception for controlling ROVs (remotely operated vehicle) which are used for submarine cable installations.

Corrintec completes first CP surveys in West Africa Corrintec, a division of Cathelco, specialising in subsea pipeline cathodic protection surveys, have completed their first survey in the Rio Del Ray field off Cameroon. The survey was commissioned by IOTA Survey & SBM on behalf of their client Total and involved inspecting 90 kms of pipeline radiating from KLP1 and KLF1 in the Eastern Complex.

Acergy S.A. announced today the award of a contract valued at approximately $1.3 billion for the engineering, procurement, fabrication and installation of a significant deepwater development, offshore West Africa.

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and the SERPENT project have contributed to a major new exhibition at the Natural History Museum, which opens this Friday (28 May).

PDM Neptec Ltd, as their official UK & European agents, congratulate Teledyne Impulse on meeting the stringent requirements to be awarded ISO 9001:2008 certification from Intertek Testing Services. The certification of both PDM Neptec and Teledyne Impulse demonstrates the companies combined commitment to quality and continual improvement for the design and manufacturing of electrical and optical connectors and cable assemblies for a broad range of marine and harsh environments.

Aker Solutions is pleased to announce that EnQuest and Petrofac Facilities Management are using Coabis to manage the 2010 subsea inspection of EnQuest's Heather and Thistle platforms.

PLI Portable Liquid Level Indicator is a low-cost hand-held device capable of indicating the liquid level in any single-walled vessel.

Reef Subsea has appointed Mark Preece as Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 July 2010.
Mr Preece, former senior vice-president of business development and marketing at Acergy, will be based at new global headquarters in London.
Reef Subsea AS was established in February 2010 and is a joint venture between GC Rieber Shipping — one of Europe’s premier offshore vessel operators — and leading energy sector private equity investor HitecVision.

Huisman and Heerema Offshore Services signed a Letter of Intent for the delivery of all mission equipment onboard Heerema's new Deep Water Construction Vessel. Huisman will design, construct and install a 4,000mt Offshore Mast Crane and a pipelay tower for both J-lay and Reel-lay operations in ultra deep water. Installation of equipment is scheduled for 2012/2013, partly at the DSME yard in South Korea and partly at the Huisman quay in Schiedam, The Netherlands.

Test your geography....

"At the Airport"

A young man about to take off in his private super-jet spotted a pretty girl on the concourse.
"Hi, did you miss your flight?" he asked.
"Yes, and now I am stranded here for a few more days."
"I'd be glad to give you a lift," he offered.
"But," she replied, "you don't even know where I'm going!"
"It doesn't matter. I can take you there without going out of my way more than a few miles."

Naturally, the girl thought this was a fresh young man with a new line, and she refused his offer until he had told her where he was headed. She then realised he had been telling the truth and went with him.

Given that this sequence of events happened at the airport in Perth, Australia, can you say where the young man was heading?

The first pipe string of the Nord Stream Pipeline was pulled ashore on 3 July. "This construction phase was important and exciting for us, not just from a technological point of view. It also has a symbolic significance, as the Nord Stream Pipeline has now reached the European mainland for the first time and, moreover here in Lubmin, the point where WINGAS is planning and already building the natural gas transfer station and the OPAL and NEL onshore pipelines," says Dr. Georg Nowack, Nord Stream AG project manager for Germany.

Subsea excavation and dredging specialist Scanmudring has formed a strategic alliance with the Marin Group to further expand global operations and build on an already strong reputation.

A new poll has been added to the site - See the Poll block to the left of this announcement.

We are trying to gauge, from the greater ROV community, the level of interest behind the formation of an International ROV Association.   Please take a second or two to vote as your response will be much appreciated.

For more information on this please use the Read More link below.......

GeoAcoustics, A Kongsberg Company, is proud to launch the next generation of digital side scan sonars: the all new Sonar 2094 Digital.

ECA will exhibit a powerful hybrid ROV/crawler, the Roving Bat, at Rio Oil and Gas Expo and Conference, alongside their UK subsidiary, CSIP. ECA and CSIP, specialists in advanced robotics and intelligent solutions for defence and civil security, will introduce the Roving Bat, a time-saving, cost efficient and life saving system that inspects the hulls of ships, FPSOs, underwater structures and hydraulic dams. It is also used for security applications, to search and dispose of limpet mines and other explosive, suspect devices attached on ships hulls, harbour walls or piers.

Seatronics Ltd have just launched a brand new website...

New results from an investigation into Antarctica's potential contribution to sea level rise are reported this week (Sunday 20 June) by scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS), Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and the National Oceanography Centre in the journal Nature Geoscience.

Subsea 7, one of the world's leading subsea engineering and construction companies has chosen BlueView Technologies to provide an acoustic imaging system for its new line of Autonomous Inspection Vehicles (AIVs). Under this agreement, BlueView will deliver both forward looking navigation and tracking sonar as well as ultra-high resolution MicroBathymetry sonar for three dimensional tracking and mapping of pipelines.

A handful of flights returned to the skies over Scotland yesterday, but forecasters warned that a fresh plume of ash from the erupting Icelandic volcano could hit the country over the weekend.   Airports at Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen took advantage of the window of opportunity to act as the UK’s main hub, receiving thousands of passengers who were otherwise unable to travel home.

Aim is unlimited high speed broadband for New Zealand and Australia

Pacific Fibre, an early stage international fibre venture founded by a group including New Zealand businessmen Stephen Tindall, Sam Morgan and Rod Drury, announced its plans today, aiming to break the digital divide between New Zealand, Australia and the rest of the world.