Oil And Gas Exploitation News

Maritime New Zealand (MNZ) says it invites submissions on its draft updated New Zealand Marine Oil Spill Response Strategy 2014 (the draft Strategy). The draft Strategy, (available at http://bit.ly/1pe6p46) is based on the current version but substantially updated to include lessons learned nationally and internationally in recent years and follows discussion with regional councils, the community and iwi, and industry at a series of public held earlier this year. The safety agency points out that it is important to note that the strategy does not cover the permitting and approval process for oil and gas exploitation. Neither does it cover emergency response to other hazardous and noxious substances. These issues are “out-of-scope” of this strategy.

Germany-based Fugro awarded Mareano, off North Norway coast, survey contract by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service (NHS). Fugro OSAE GmbH has been awarded a EUR 2.7 million hydrographic survey contract by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service (NHS). This survey, planned for 2013, is part of the on-going MAREANO project and will encompass an area over 11,000km2 in the Barents Sea. The area is located offshore the northern-most part of Norway, close to the Russian border, in water depths between 150 metres and 300 metres. The awarded survey is adjacent to an area surveyed by Fugro in 2011 and 2012.

Fugro OSAE GmbH has been awarded a €2.3 million hydrographic survey contract by the Norwegian Hydrographic Service (NHS). The survey is part of the MAREANO project and will encompass an area over 12,000km² in the Barents Sea. The area is located 200km offshore in the northern-most part of Norway, near the Russian border, in water depth down to 300 metres. As the North Atlantic current keeps the waters in this area open and navigable most of the year, the survey will be carried out in early 2012. Data will be acquired by the survey vessel Victor Hensen using the new, high resolution Kongsberg EM2040 multibeam echo sounder. Processing will take place onboard the vessel and at Fugro OSAE’s processing centre in Bremen, Germany.

LEADING international classification society Bureau Veritas has issued guidelines for the Risk-Based Qualification of New Technology. Qualification is a process by which a new technology or an existing technology used in a new context is validated. The qualification process is intended to prove with an acceptable level of confidence and in a cost effective manner that a technology is fit for purpose, that it complies with the specifications that the designer developed and that it is sufficiently reliable and is safe for the people and the environment.

The bill includes a major (and lengthy) title devoted to ballast water treatment. This would, if enacted, make it a national goal that, by 2015, ballast water when discharged into waters of the United States will contain no living (viable) organisms. This would constitute a ridiculously high standard and would be virtually impossible to test for. Ships would be required to have ballast water management plans approved by the US Coast Guard, but the agency would be given sufficient…