Page 40: of Marine Technology Magazine (October 2010)

40 MTR October 2010 people & companies

IHC, Marine Mineral

Projects Join Forces

It is on the back of the experi- ence and strong track record with- in the underwater diamond min- ing industry off the west coast of

Southern Africa by Marine and

Mineral Projects since 1993, that the shareholders of IHC Merwede joined forces with selected staff from this leading designer and manufacturer of underwater min- ing systems including crawlers, to form IHC Marine and Mineral

Projects in April 2010 in Cape

Town, South Africa. Through the cooperation of IHC Merwede’s business units, Deep Sea Dredging and Mining (DSDM) with Marine and Mineral Projects, this cohesive partnership is able to provide innovative engineering and leading technology for underwater mining solutions. More recently, as the world’s land based mining resources are steadily depleted and mining houses have moved their focus to underwater resources,

IHC Merwede is in demand to develop both shallow and deep water sampling and mining sys- tems. The deep sea mining indus- try is expanding and as such, the number of enquiries for deep sea dredging and mining solutions is increasing accordingly.

Email: info@ marineandmineral.com

Perth-based TSmarine Asia Pacific signed a multi-year service contract with leading international oilfield service company Expro. The con- tract, through TSmarine’s new

Aberdeen-based subsidiary SALT

Subsea Ltd, will deliver worldwide support for Expro’s groundbreaking subsea well intervention system AX-

S. The deal has a potential value of $100m. TSmarine Asia Pacific chief executive officer John Edwards said

AX-S would change the way oil and gas companies work on their subsea wells in the future, saving time and money. “There are about 4,000 oil and gas producing subsea wells around the world and this number is growing,”

Edwards said. “Many wells are more than a decade old and require servic- ing to allow for maximum oil and gas recovery. “Current methods involve positioning a rig above the well while the work is carried out, which is time-consuming and expen- sive with rigs costing up to a million dollars a day.”

Expro’s AX-S subsea system is 35 m high and weighs 220 tons and is deployed from a monohull vessel, such as TSmarine’s DP2 DNV- classed intervention vessel Havila

Phoenix. The system can be lowered on to any subsea well down to a depth of 10,000 ft., providing a safer and cheaper alternative to current practices. Under the contract, SALT

Subsea will supply the Havila

Phoenix, a 110m long vessel built in 2009; dual Schilling 4,000m-rated

UHD Workclass ROV systems; spe- cialised tooling packages; survey and positioning and overall marine man- agement of the vessel.

The Schilling UHD ROV systems were selected by SALT Subsea for their compatibility with the AX-S control systems and sub-assemblies, further enhancing the inbuilt redun- dancy and reliability of the system.

The Havila Phoenix and AX-S will be mobilized in Europe during

October and commence a series of demanding offshore trials before being deployed for operational use.

TSMarine Signs Expro Contract

The DP-2 Havila Phoenix will be used in conjunction with the AX-S system for worldwide operations.