Crowne Plaza News

General Dynamics Electric Boat expects to hire nearly 4,000 people in the coming years as it ramps up production on Navy submarines, the Associated Press reports. Electric Boat is projecting a positive outlook for 2016 for revenue and employment, saying 1,800 more workers will be hired at its facilities in Connecticut and Rhode Island this year. Electric Boat, a subsidiary of General Dynamics Corp., employs 14,100 people, mainly in Connecticut. By 2030, EB is projecting that number will grow to 18,000. Electric Boat president Jeffrey S. Geiger told a gathering of legislators Monday at the Crowne Plaza in Warwick the North Kingstown shipbuilder’s future looks upbeat. Right now, the company has a backlog of 16 Virginia-class attack submarines under contract — worth $21 billion.

Shanghai-based Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd., a subsidiary of the Wison Group, announced that Latin America Sales Manager, Juan Guarin, will present the EXMAR FLRSU project at the Offshore Colombia Forum on May 6. Wison Offshore & Marine was awarded a contract by Exmar in June 2012 for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of the world’s first FLRSU, which is being constructed at Wison’s wholly-owned fabrication yard located in Nantong, China. Mr. Since offshore activities in Colombia are starting to experience a significant boost, great business opportunities will be created for American companies involved in the oil and gas industry.

Smit Lamnalco passed a milestone in Oman after celebrating 14‐years of continuous marine and offshore support services with no Lost Time Incident (LTI). The 5,100 day record covers support to Single Point Mooring operations 10 km off Muscat Cove for the Petroleum Development of Oman (PDO). The services, which have run since 1998, are offered by a joint venture between Smit Lamnalco and Omani partner Suhail Bahwain Group. The occasion was marked by a celebration at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Muscat…

NOAA’s Hydrographic Services Review Panel will meet Nov. 27-29 in New Orleans to discuss hydrographic surveying, nautical charting, tides and current measurements, as well as geodetic and geospatial measurements for the Gulf of Mexico region. The three-day meeting is open to the public, and public comment periods are scheduled in the afternoons. The panel will hear from representatives of the regional maritime community, including port authority officials and marine pilots, the geospatial community, and users of NOAA’s tides and currents information.

The fourth annual Marine Renewable Energy Technical Conference will be held October 30-31, 2012, at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Conference Center in Providence/Warwick, Rhode Island. The conference Technical Committee is now accepting extended abstracts  for presentation at the  Conference on topics related to tidal energy, wave energy, offshore wind, ocean currents, ocean thermal energy, and other ways to extract energy from oceans or rivers. Also of interest are engineering and environmental studies which further the sustainable development of marine renewable energy. The accepted abstracts will be made available on the New England MREC web site (www.mrec.umassd.edu) and on flash drives given to each attendee.

The U.S. Coast Guard has announced a series of public meetings to receive comments on a notice of proposed rulemaking entitled “Inspection of Towing Vessels” that was published in the Federal Register on August 11, 2011. As stated in that document, the regulations proposed in the NPRM would establish safety regulations governing the inspection, standards, and safety management systems of towing vessels. The proposal includes provisions covering: Specific electrical and machinery requirements for new and existing towing vessels…

On May 11, Transocean Ltd issued a statement in response to several reports that detail Transocean's (NYSE: RIG) (SIX: RIGN) treatment of crew members immediately following the April 20, 2010 explosion aboard the Deepwater Horizon, including erroneous allegations that crew members were asked to sign waivers. The company would like to clarify the series of events that transpired that evening and the days after the incident. --  U.S. Coast Guard, as on-scene incident command, not Transocean, in control of rescue vessel: All decisions aboard the rescue boat, the Damon Bankston, were made solely by the Coast Guard and all efforts to transport crew members from the rig to shore were coordinated by the Coast Guard according to standard maritime procedures.

Clyde Marine Training, the UK’s largest maritime training provider, has recently won a Glasgow Business Award in the category of Best Performing Business with 25 employees or less. The Awards ceremony took place at the Crowne Plaza Hotel on October 8. Clyde Marine Training’s recent service diversification has helped contribute to their success. They now provide assistance to businesses in all industry sectors in the areas of First Aid Training, Fire Safety Training, Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) and Uniform and Safety Wear Supply. (www.clydemarinetraining.com)

The American Society of Naval Engineers will host a Tug & Salvage Technology Symposium on January 29-30, 2009, at the Crowne Plaza National Airport Hotel in Arlington, Virginia. The symposium will provide a forum for discussion about current and developing tug and salvage technologies and the possibility of combining the designs of tug boats and salvage ships to create a new, integrated vessel that has the capabilities of both. The U.S. Department of the Navy has identified a need to recapitalize its fleet of tug and salvage ships. The Navy staff and the Navy’s Military Sealift Command believe that commercial platforms currently in design or under construction by industry can address Navy requirements and afford the opportunity to leverage commercial technologies in hull forms…

Industry experts and U.S. Navy leadership will gather next month at a workshop conducted by the American Society of Naval Engineers (ASNE) to discuss how the U.S. Navy can afford, resource, acquire and deliver “state of the shelf” C4I technologies to ensure deploying naval forces are equipped with the latest yet most dependable capabilities. Industry participants will have an opportunity to hear first hand, from the Navy’s top level C4I leadership, about the Navy’s C4I strategy and requirements and the challenges they face in rapidly transitioning the best available C4I technologies to the Fleet. Industry participants will then develop ideas and recommendations that they will present to the Navy C4I leaders. The two-day workshop, sponsored by the U.S.