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O ur Offshore Annual focuses largely on new oil spill response technologies developed before, during and in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of

Mexico. As we approach the one year anniversary of the explosion, the loss of 11 lives and the spill from the Macondo well, MarineNews takes a look at technology designed to stop an accident of this magnitude from ever happening again; or, more likely when an acci- dent of this magnitude inevitably happens again, to clean it up as quickly and efficiently as possible. In our Market section (starting on page 40) we review a number of technologies such as new skimmer vessels, oil slick tracking radars and a submarine for clean-up of mate- rial settled on the ocean floor. Our GOM-area correspondent, Susan Buchanan, covers the adoption of containment systems designed to control blowouts on oil rigs. She describes two separate consortia of pri- vate companies that have pooled their resources to develop systems that can satisfy the Bureau of Ocean Energy

Management, Regulation and Enforcement ‘s (BOEMRE) requirement to demonstrate the capacity to contain a sub- sea blowout. These containment systems are operational now, but the technology continues to be improved. BOEM-

RE began issuing permits in late February and early March, mostly projects that had been previously approved before the Macondo well spill. However, in late March the agency approved a permit for a new deepwater well operated by

Shell Offshore Inc. in Garden Banks Block 427, about 137 miles off the coast of Louisiana. It also issued approval for oil and natural gas production at Petrobras America’s Chinook-Cascade project using a floating production storage offloading (FPSO) facility, the first time this technology will be used in the Gulf of Mexico. Although the Gulf of

Mexico’s economic engine is undoubtedly compromised, some offshore support vessel operators are still experiencing a healthy workload. In our pages this month, Shane Guidry, CEO of Harvey Gulf International Marine, says his fleet is fully employed, although he has had to deploy some of his assets internationally to keep it that way.

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Raina Clark, Managing Editor, [email protected]

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Online Resour ces 6 MN April 2011

EDITOR’S NOTE rainaclark@ marinelink.com