Surveyors News

The National Association of Marine Surveyors (NAMS) announced the dates for its 2022 New England Fall Conference in Newport, R.I. and North 2022 Pacific Fall Conference in Bremerton, Wash.The New England Fall Conference, to be held October 27 and 28, 2022, will include a roundtable and reception at the IYRS School of Technology & Trades. IYRS is a non-profit, post-secondary experiential learning institution and is the premier marine trades and modern manufacturing school in the United States. IYRS offers education and training programs for people with a passion for thinking and working through their hands.NAMS-accredited marine surveyors…

AqualisBraemar LOC ASA Group's (ABL Group) operations in the USA announced the new appointment of Sean Murphy as Senior Surveyor based in Boston, adding to ABL’s strengths in both the local maritime and offshore renewables industries.Murphy is a chartered naval architect and marine engineer, and a graduate of Webb Institute with a masters in engineering management from Duke University.He has extensive experience in marine casualty investigations for various interests, serving as an expert witness in his field.

Remote surveys have become more commonplace with the arrival of COVID-19, and based on its experience performing many of these surveys, classification society ClassNK has released its updated “Guidelines for Remote Surveys (Ver. 3.0)”.Available to download for free from ClassNK’s website, “The Guidelines for Remote Surveys” stipulate applicable survey items and requirements for the use of information and communications technology (ICT) to ensure reliability equivalent to conventional witness surveys with transparency in the application of remote surveys…

AMS Global helped out in a most unusual project for the marine consulting and safety firm, helping to return The Floating Head back to the water,  33 years after it was first created.The Floating Head, a sculpture created by artist Richard Groom, was the centrepiece for Glasgow’s 1988 Garden Festival. It has been carefully restored over the past six months, and is now on public display at Canting Basin at Govan Docks, adjacent to Glasgow Science Centre, for the next four weeks.Inspired by the carvings on Easter Island…

An unmanned vessel is now surveying more than 3,500 nautical miles of the Western Galveston Bay, near the Houston Ship Channel.DEA Marine Services, a division of David Evans and Associates, Inc. (DEA), in Vancouver, Wash., equipped its survey boat Sigsbee with a Sea Machines Robotics SM300 autonomous-command and remote-helm control system to fulfill a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) contract.Sigsbee, which is serving as an autonomous daughter craft for the project…

French-based geophysical services company CGG announced that it has completed the wind-down and exit from its land seismic data acquisition business after completing its last land seismic acquisition contract in Tunisia.Following on from the company’s recently announced exits from seabed and marine data acquisition, this milestone marks the successful completion of CGG’s strategy to exit the seismic data acquisition business.To date, CGG still retains a minority shareholding in the ARGAS company operating in the Middle East.Sophie Zurquiyah, CEO of CGG, said: “The exit from our seismic data acquisition business, one of CGG’s long-standing historic areas of expertise…

Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind, a 50/50 partnership between Shell New Energies US LLC and EDF Renewables North America, announced the launch of ocean survey operations today within the Atlantic Shores lease area, in order to inform future turbine development.Survey operations encompass 183,000 acres located 8-20 miles off the New Jersey coast between Barnegat Light and Sea Isle City and are expected to conclude by the end of October, weather permitting.The survey vessel Geosea will be utilized to characterize the seabed, collect samples and determine placement of data collection buoys, which will be deployed later this year to help measure wind…

Dutch multinational geo-data specialist Fugro has completed the second of three Malaysian seep hunting and geochemical campaigns for Malaysian oil and gas company ‘Petronas’.According to the provider of geotechnical, survey, subsea, and geoscience services, the first campaign was conducted offshore Sabah, Malaysia, and took place between December 2018 and March 2019, using 2012 built Fugro Equator, which acquired geophysical data including multibeam echo sounder (MBES) and sub-bottom profiler (SBP) data used to interpret geologic features and optimize target selection for geochemical sampling.The second campaign was located offshore Sarawak…

Norwegian seismic player TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company (TGS) has completed its acquisition of Spectrum, creating a global multi-client geophysical data provider.TGS first announced its intent to acquire Spectrum on 2 May 2019, said a press release from TGS.Completion of the acquisition and the merger plan has today been registered with the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises. As a consequence and following the issuance of 16,076,047 consideration shares to the former shareholders of Spectrum, the new share capital of TGS is NOK 29,680,959.25 divided on 118,723,837 shares each with a nominal value of NOK 0.25.Commenting on the acquisition, Kristian Johansen, CEO of TGS, said, “We are pleased to have formally closed the transaction to acquire Spectrum.

SeaBird Exploration, a global provider of marine 2D and 3D seismic data and associated products and services to the oil and gas industry, has estimated that its ongoing seismic surveys in West Africa and Americas will both be completed about two months later than originally planned.The the ongoing niche 3D survey in West Africa utilizing the “Nordic Explorer” and a 2D survey in the Americas employing the “Harrier Explorer” are rigged with the ”Digistreamer” technology and both surveys are affected by difficulties with availability and lead-time of select seismic streamer equipment parts relating to this technology.This includes a significant increase in the repair period for streamer sections compared to historic experience caused by the service offering…

Partners DNV GL, Kongsberg Maritime and Subsea 7 have concluded the pilot testing of Kongsberg Maritime’s (KM) DP Digital Survey (KMDS) application on board the Subsea 7 vessel Seven Kestrel.The pilot tested the use of a remote digital verification tool for testing dynamic positioning (DP) systems as part of classification society DNV GL’s D-Class project.In March 2019,  DNV GL rolled out the first fleet-wide remote survey scheme for some inspections in the classification industry.

Seismic research vessels hired by Exxon Mobil to explore for oil off Guyana's coast have not returned to the site of a December incident with Venezuela's navy, but they may in the future, Guyana's foreign minister said on Thursday.Guyana, with no history of oil production, has become the focus of intense interest since Exxon announced the discovery of over 5 billion barrels of oil and gas off its shores. That has reignited a century-old territorial dispute with neighboring Venezuela.

Leading classification society Nippon Kaiji Kyokai, also known by the brand name 'ClassNK', has opened a new exclusive survey office in Reggio Calabria, Italy with operations beginning 5 December, 2018.Reggio Calabria, located in Southwest Italy, faces the Strait of Messina which crosses through the Italian Peninsula and Sicily. In recent years, the number of surveys and audits required in the southern part of Italy and Malta has been increasing.Through the opening of its latest office, ClassNK will improve the efficiency of its ship surveys and audits in these areas, the society dedicated to ensuring the safety of life and property at sea…

Brazil's state-controlled Petroleo Brasileiro SA (Petrobras) said on Monday it had sealed a joint venture with Murphy Exploration & Production Company to explore oil and gas fields in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a securities filing.Petrobras received $795 million for the deal, and will have a 20 percent stake in the venture.Reporting by Carolina Mandl

Griffon Hoverwork will launch  its new 995ED model at  Exponaval in Valparaiso, Chile.“Griffon is hugely excited to unveil the highly innovative 995ED which is specially designed for search and rescue, coastguard and surveying work complementing Griffon’s range of marine grade aluminium hovercraft,” said sales and marketing director Nick MacLeod-Ash. “The 995ED, at eight meters (m) length and 30 knots speed at full ‘all up weight’, is the first hovercraft to achieve certification…

Norwegian seismic services provider Petroleum Geo-Services (PGS) has offered to sell the Ramform Sterling vessel to the Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC).The seismic services that help oil companies to find oil and gas reserves offshore worldwide said in a press release that it had been informed that JOGMEC, an incorporated administrative agency of Ministry of Economy Trade and Industry, is the preferred tenderer and that negotiations would be initiated with the aim of concluding necessary contracts."PGS has now been informed that the Company is the preferred tenderer, and negotiations will be initiated with the aim of concluding necessary contracts. A final award to PGS will only take place if and when all contracts have been concluded.

Norwegian seismic surveyor SeaBird Exploration said it had taken delivery of the Geowave Voyager from France's CGG, and the vessel has been renamed Eagle Explorer.The vessel was acquired fully rigged with 40km streamer and dual source, for $17 million and a NOK 120 million private placement.As part of the purchase agreement, SeaBird will have a preferred supplier status with CGG when using the Eagle Explorer.SeaBird and CGG have entered into a 160-day contract for the vessel, operating as a source vessel, with options for CGG to extend.The vessel will go to work starting in December, after completing class renewal.

Construction of a new Oregon State University (OSU) bound research ship that will advance the science of coastal environments, and support research on topics such as ocean acidification, hypoxia, and sea level rise, officially began today at Gulf Island Shipyards in Louisiana.Officials from OSU the National Science Foundation (NSF) and Gulf Island Shipyards LLC gathered at the shipyard in Houma, La. for the keel-laying ceremony, marking the start of fabrication of the state-of-the art ship.

Offshore geophysical firm Polarcus Limited said Thursday it has received an award for a 3D marine seismic acquisition project in West Africa.The award comprises two surveys of approximately three months each, with the first survey expected to commence Q2 2019 and the second survey Q4 2019.

Oslo-listed seismic surveyor TGS fell more than 10 percent after reporting disappointing third-quarter results on Thursday, as oil firms were still too cautious to spend despite a raft of upbeat earnings.TGS, which maps the seabed in search of hydrocarbon deposits for oil firms, reported quarterly operating profit of $24 million, down from $26 million a year ago and missing a forecast of $37 million returned by a Reuters poll.While oil companies like Shell, BP and Total are reporting bumper profits in the third quarter…

Dutch deep-sea prospector Fugro has reported a 29.1 percent rise in third-quarter revenue on a comparable basis, driven by the expansion of offshore wind developments and a recovery in the global oil and gas market.Rising oil prices have helped Fugro by making it more economic to prospect for the hard-to-reach subsea deposits in which it specializes."In our early cyclical marine site characterisation activities we are experiencing sharp growth and improving prices, resulting in strongly improved profitability…

A Turkish energy exploration ship will continue to operate in the Mediterranean Sea, the energy minister said on Friday, after Ankara said the navy stopped a Greek frigate from harassing the ship due to territorial disputes.Turkey, Greece and Cyprus's internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government have long disputed their overlapping claims of jurisdiction for offshore oil and gas research in the Mediterranean."Turkish Petroleum's exploration ship will continue its activities in line with Turkey's rights," Energy Minister Fatih Donmez told reporters in the western coastal province of Izmir, referring to the state-owned oil company.Turkey's foreign ministry said on Thursday that the navy had stopped a Greek frigate from harassing the Turkish Petroleum ship in the Mediterranean Sea, cal

Thomas Chance founded C & C Technologies in his home in 1992. Today C & C is a global oil field surveying and mapping company with more than 550 employees in ten offices worldwide. C & C was the first company in the world to offer autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) survey services to the oil industry and remains a world leader in the field. In April of 2015, he sold C & C Technologies to Oceaneering International. Complementing the autonomous underwater vehicle business, Mr. Chance started Autonomous Surface Vehicles, Ltd., or ASV, in 2010. ASV has 140 employees, four offices across the globe and has built more than 100 state-of-the-art unmanned boats for the defense and commercial sectors.