Positioning Services News

Ocean services provider DeepOcean and Saudi Arabia-based Jana Marine Services have signed a heads of terms agreement to establish a joint venture company that will offer integrated subsea solutions to the offshore energy industry in the Middle East.The intended joint venture, to be named JADE Subsea Services, plans to enter into a five-year charter agreement with Jana Marine for a newbuild DP2 hybrid diving support vessel (DSV) capable of performing subsea construction, inspection…

Danish offshore vessel operator Maersk Supply Service has secured a one-year contract extension for one of its subsea support vessels in Angola.In a social media post on Monday, Maersk Supply Service said it would provide the full scope IRM services for an undisclosed oil major in Angola, supported by one of the company's I-class subsea support vessels.In addition, the contract covers an integrated package of FSV, 2 WROV + Positioning Services as well as project management and engineering services.Osvaldo Sechie, Managing Director, Angola said the contract win gave the company an extended footprint in Angola, a longer-term contract with a valued customer, and ability to continue with the company's local content development plan through its  Cadets program.

Norskan Offshore and DOF Subsea Brazil have been awarded RSV contracts for the Skandi Commander and one ROV. The contracts have a duration of 150 days with start-up in April 2018. Skandi Commander is a RSV vessel (MT 6009) built in 2007 and was reflagged with Brazilian flag in 2017. DOF Subsea has also been awarded various contracts in the Atlantic region, securing utilisation for vessels and personnel in the Subsea/IMR Projects segment. The contract is for several decommissioning campaigns in the North Sea securing utilisation for Skandi Neptune into Q3 2018. It includes, short-term contracts for the provision of vessel and ROV services securing utilisation for Geosund and Skandi Constructor in Q2 2018, with potential for extensions.

iSURVEY has secured a non exclusive call-off contract with Shell UK Ltd, Shell NAM, Norske Shell and Shell E&P Ireland for the provision of rig positioning and surveying services. With an effective date of 1 January 2017, the three year contract, which has the option of up to two, one year extensions, will see iSURVEY provide non exclusive rig and surface positioning services, subsurface positioning and dimensional control and platform surveys to Shell’s mobile offshore drilling units. Andrew McMurtrie, managing director of iSURVEY Offshore Limited said: “This is a significant win for iSURVEY in what has been a challenging time for the entire market.

Global Maritime Consultancy & Engineering, a provider of marine warranty, dynamic positioning and engineering services to the offshore sector, has successfully led the disconnection and towing operations of the Njord A semi-submersible floating production platform from the Njord field. The Njord A platform arrived safely in Klosterfjorden on the August 23, where a handover to Kværner was achieved. The 346 nautical-mile journey was carried out by Global Maritime, on behalf of the operator Statoil.

Singapore’s offshore marine services provider PACC Offshore Services Holdings Ltd. (POSH) has been awarded a contract to support Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas facility using its semi-submersible accommodation vessel the “POSH Arcadia”. The 750-pax POSH Arcadia will be deployed to provide accommodation support for the hook-up and commissioning phase of the Shell Prelude FLNG Project in the Browse Basin, off the north-west coast of Western Australia. This is POSH’s second contract for the Prelude FLNG Project. In January 2016, the POSH Terasea joint venture, comprising POSH and Terasea Pte. Ltd., was appointed to provide towage and positioning services for the facility.

Software design company Quality Positioning Services BV (QPS) has upgraded its hydrographic data acquisition, navigation and processing software package QINSy (Quality Integrated Navigation System). The latest version, 8.10.2015.06.29.1, includes a new feature called Hook-Up Operations for Anchor Handling, for pre-laid anchors powered by Orcaflex of Orcina. Traditional anchor handling, including showing the catenary, was already possible with QINSy. The anchors are run from the rig or barge using tug boats that deploy the anchors at the planned positions.

iSURVEY has been awarded a two-year contract with offshore vessel owner, Island Offshore Management, which will see iSURVEY AS provide positioning services to Island Offshore as part of a call off arrangement. Operations have already commenced on the first vessel, Island’s DP2 Light construction vessel, the Island Valiant. Following current well head cutting work in the Danish sector, iSURVEY will be supporting Island Offshore for further subsea work in the North Sea.

NCS Survey, an Acteon company, has been awarded a five year contract for positioning services with SURF Company, Ceona. Mobilization has been completed on the first vessel, Ceona’s DP3 multi-purpose vessel, the Normand Pacific. Succeeding its initial work in the Gulf of Mexico, NCS Survey will be supporting Ceona with further subsea work in Nigeria at the ABO and OYO fields.

Aberdeen-based Veripos, suppliers of high-precision GNSS positioning services for offshore applications, is to provide dedicated positioning support for a number of Platform Supply vessels (PSVs) operated by Rem Offshore, the specialist Norwegian company which maintains a global fleet of ships. Under the new agreement, which extends present contract arrangements between the two companies, Veripos will provide the PSVs with a combination of its proprietary Standard and Standard2 GNSS data augmentation positioning services…

DOF Subsea, provider of integrated subsea solutions, has been awarded a Master Service Agreement (MSA) extension with Seaway Heavy Lifting for the provision of positioning services onboard its Stanislav Yudin and Oleg Strashnov crane vessels. DOF Subsea offers services to third parties across the globe through its survey and positioning division. The contract with Seaway Heavy Lifting was announced in January 2014 and has been extended for a further two years plus options. Giovanni Corbetta…

Singapore-based Miclyn Express Offshore (MEO), a provider of offshore support vessels across Southeast Asia, Australia and the Middle East, has awarded Veripos a five-year contract for provision of high-precision GNSS positioning services in support of its fleet of 27 ships. Under the terms of the contract, Veripos will provide MEO’s fleet with its proprietary Veripos Ultra Precise Point Positioning (PPP) service designed to deliver decimeter-level accuracies globally together with associated integrated mobile receivers. Among the first vessels assigned to utilize the service and equipment are MEO’s new 2,000 dwt platform supply vessels…

NCS Survey, an Acteon company, has been awarded a five-year contract with AKOFS Wayfarer AS, a Norwegian marine contractor, for the supply of positioning and survey services aboard the Aker Wayfarer. Since January 2011, NCS Survey has been aboard the vessel via a contract with Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) contractor, Oceaneering, working on several projects including Wellstream’s OSX-1 in Brazil in 2011 and 2012, and with Subsea 7 last year. “This contract award underlines our desire to grow our construction support business line and builds on our previous successful relationship with Aker…

Aberdeen-based Veripos, a supplier of GNSS positioning services to the world offshore industry, has extended its range of integrated mobile receiver units with introduction of a new multi-frequency system featuring GNSS heading, L-band positioning and wireless communication capabilities, the LD7. Compatible with both GPS and Glonass networks, the 272-channel system includes an additional processor for onboard configuration and customized applications separate from its GNSS engine.

Netherlands-based Fugro has been contracted by Chevron subsidiary Cabinda Gulf Oil Company Ltd, to support its development program at Block 0, off the coast of Cabinda province, Angola. The contract includes the provision of offshore positioning services and accurate navigation systems for Chevron’s drilling units, vessels and structures, together with both onshore and offshore survey services. Fugro’s offshore geophysical data acquisition services will be supplemented by data processing, interpretation and reporting. At Chevron’s onshore facilities in Malongo, Fugro’s survey services will include subsidence evaluations, topographical surveys, chart production, interpretation and reporting. www.fugro.com

C-Nav, a supplier of international GNSS Precise Point Positioning services, announced the launch of its latest GNSS Real-time tide measurement package, C-Tides. The C-Tides suite combines the exceptional vertical accuracy of C-Nav's GNSS Precise Point Positioning service with the latest advanced ocean and coastal tides models. C-Tides Online features real-time filters and vessel dynamics, choice of world-wide Mean Sea Surface or regional reference frame models, and tidal prediction for mission planning, while C-Tides Offline utilities include data smoothing and outlier rejection, harmonic analysis, Doodson X0 filter and a LAT option.  www.cnav.com

Allseas, a  leader in offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction, has awarded Veripos a further three-year contract for continuing provision of specialist  GNSS positioning services for its entire fleet of vessels headed by the world's largest pipelaying vessel, the 300m Solitaire. Other vessels concerned include companion DP pipelayers Audacia and Lorelay in addition to the DP trenching support and subsea installation vessel, Calamity Jane, the anchored pipelay barge, Tog Mor, and the ROSVs Highland Fortress, Highland Navigator and Highland Rover. Allseas expect to add to its fleet during the course of the contract what will be the world’s largest construction support vessel…

Leading independent offshore survey company UTEC has announced the award of a significant multi-year framework agreement. The services contract will be managed though UTEC’s Italian office in Naples and regional sales manager Carlo Pinto comments: “We are extremely pleased with the faith SBM Offshore has placed in us to provide a wide range of survey services on its construction fleet. We look forward to providing global support to the new SBM Installer from early in 2013. UTEC…

VERIPOS, wins a three-year contract from Neptune Marine Services (NMS) of Perth, Western Australia for its GPS augmentation service. The contract, which represents a continuation of a long-standing working relationship between the two companies, covers the provision of VERIPOS’s  Standard GPS augmentation service in addition to its Ultra and Apex2 precise point positioning facilities, the latter using both GPS and Glonass constellations. All three services will in turn be supported by VERIPOS’s Verify QC processing software for real-time and post-processing assessments of data. Neptune, one of Australia’s leading subsea engineering organisations, has additional bases in South East Asia, the Middle East and Europe.

Island Offshore, renews Veripos's 3-year contract for precision GNSS positioning services for DP vessels. Island Offshore awards Veripos a further three-year contract for continuing provision of precision GNSS positioning services for 16 DP vessels in addition to another 6 due to begin service in the near future. The new agreement extends the working arrangement between the two companies which first began in 2007. All the vessels are being supplied with Veripos’s latest Apex2 precise point positioning service using both GPS and Glonass networks as well a combination of its Apex…

Positioneering is a new global full-service precise positioning service company that is now approaching completion of a three-year multi-million pound development programme including development of a range of GNSS augmentation services, hardware and software solutions. The company, the first dedicated provider of global GNSS-based precise-positioning services to enter the offshore market in over a decade, announced the appointment of David Stephen to the position of General Manager of its Europe-Africa business. The company also announced the appointment of Dr Smita Tiwari to the position of GNSS Research Engineer. Smita is a prominent figure in the academic world having completed a number of research fellowships at Universities in India…

MSC Cruises has worked with independent software design company Quality Positioning Services (QPS)  on a high performance, real-time vessel track, trace and emergency monitoring system. This voyage planning and monitoring system (VP & MS) allows MSC Cruises to implement route analysis and track each of its ships with an update rate of one second and an accuracy of less than five metres. The system means that each ship is constantly sending information, including its own position, speed, heading and course together with all other ship targets within a 40 mile radius, to the shore based QPS Connect server in Sorrento. In order to provide a reliable traffic image, the QPS Connect server fuses the real-time vessel information with real-time information from  terrestrial based AIS networks.

NCS Survey, an Acteon company, won a rig positioning contract by Shell. The contract covers Shell’s four entities in Europe; Shell UK Ltd, Nederlandse Aardolie Maatschappij BV, A/S Norske Shell and Shell E&P Ireland Ltd. The contract is for three years with two one-year extension options. This is the second time that NCS Survey has been awarded such a contract by Shell, first one being in December 2006 less than 18 months after the company was incorporated. Andy Gray, NCS Survey president, said, “We are delighted that Shell has selected NCS Survey to provide the positioning services on board its rigs for the next few years.