Fugro Emu News

Fugro has undertaken successful trials of its new GeoWing, a system designed to detect low ferrous content unexploded ordnance (UXO) items in challenging marine environments. The new GeoWing system is especially beneficial for subsea construction projects, such as wind farms and cable route developments, particularly in magnetically ‘noisy’ marine environments and areas affected by strong tidal currents. The magnetic signature from small items of UXO can often be masked by the magnetic signature of other sources, such as the background geology. Fugro’s solution is the GeoWing, a fixed gradiometer array consisting of five magnetometers mounted behind an ROTV.

Fugro EMU Laboratories announced the appointment of Dr Grant Rowe as the new Contractor representative for the NMBAQCS (National Marine Biological Analytical Quality Control Scheme). Dr Rowe was chosen from among several prospective candidates to take up the position. His long-standing participation in the scheme, in addition to his commercial knowledge and over 20 years of technical experience, were pivotal to the appointment. This position will provide a key link between Scheme participants and the NMBAQCS committee, providing feedback, support and guidance to the scheme as it continues to develop. Dr Sam Stanton, Laboratories Commercial Manager, said; “I’m very happy that Grant has been awarded this important position.

‘Addressing the Challenges of New Frontiers’ is the topical theme for the International Marine Contractors Association’s (IMCA) Annual Seminar being held in Singapore November 6-7, 2013. The program for the 18th seminar in the annual series is now online at imca-int.com/events/imca-annual-seminar.aspx, and registration is open. Open to members and non-members alike, the seminar features keynote addresses, presentations, workshops and discussions on diving including key developments and advances in diving equipment and operations; marine and subsea operations including DP operations; marine operations, technology and equipment; offshore surveying in remote and harsh environments; ROV and AUV resources and developments in technology.

The latest seabed survey of the Dogger Bank offshore wind zone takes the cost of the Forewind consortium's spend on offshore surveys to almost £45 million. Since being awarded the rights to develop Dogger Bank in January 2010, Forewind has undertaken a huge range of geotechnical, geophysical and fish ecology surveys to understand and characterise the seabed and marine conditions of the zone as part of its environmental impact assessment work. The majority of the contracts have gone to UK companies including Hull-based Precision Marine Survey Limited…

The merger earlier this year of Fugro's three UK-based environmental service providers to form Fugro EMU made it the largest organisation in the UK. Fugro EMU Limited, the largest commercial marine environmental services organisation in the UK, employs in excess of 220 staff with expertise in oil and gas, renewables, aggregates, ports and harbours, cables and pipelines. "Fugro EMU will build on the excellent reputation of the three predecessor organisations within all industry sectors. In the oil and gas industry we have over 40 years’ experience and have undertaken over 150 environmental assessments and 1,000 environmental surveys for exploration, development and decommissioning projects.

Marine operations such as offshore oil and gas operations, renewable energy projects and shipping depend on high quality information on sea-state (wave height, period, direction, steepness) for economic and safety decision making. The information currently available is based on atmospheric/ocean models and lacks sufficient temporal and spatial resolution. “Wave conditions are always changing and can vary tremendously over a period of a few hours”, said Chelsea’s Technical Manager, Paul Bolton.