Page 54: of Marine Technology Magazine (January 2011)

54 MTR January/February 2011 quality sensors, and a 6-beam DVL.

The AUV will be used to study the bathymetry and water quality of the

Fall River. UC Davis researchers also plan to study aquatic vegetation with the system in the future.

Aker Solutions Signs

CNOOC Subsea Contract

Aker Solutions signed a subsea con- tract with the state-owned oil compa- ny China National Offshore Oil

Corporation (CNOOC) to supply a subsea production system for the

Yacheng 13-4 gas field. The $20m contract was signed at an official signing ceremony at Zhanjiang,

China, and is significant as it is the first subsea production system con- tract Aker Solutions has signed with

CNOOC. The field development is located in the north of South China

Sea, approximately 72 km southwest of Sanya City, Hainan Province of the People's Republic of China. The field's water depth is approximately 90m. Scope of work covers engineer- ing, manufacturing and delivery of three subsea wellhead systems, three gas producing subsea trees, control systems, subsea distribution system and installation support services.

Deliveries are expected to begin in the third quarter of 2011.

Breakthrough Subsea

Deal for Aker Solutions

Aker Solutions secured a contract to supply heating systems for the subsea pipelines that Technip will deliver and install for the Goliat field in the Barents Sea. Direct electrical heating (DEH) of pipelines is a tech- nique used to avoid hydrate and wax formation in pipelines used for trans- port of oil between the manifolds on the seabed to the offshore facility.

Heating up the pipeline will prevent it from becoming blocked due to hydrate formation during shut-down periods thereby minimizing the use of chemicals and optimizing the shut down periods.

Rapp Hydema Wins Deal

Great Lakes Shipyard awarded

Rapp Hydema NW the deck machinery packages for two U.S.

Geological Survey research vessels now under construction. Rapp’s award includes a pair of trawl winch- es, a centerline winch, side-sampling winches port and starboard, and a dual net reel, for each vessel. Rapp will be providing its state-of-the art

PTS Pentagon Canbus system for winch control and monitoring, as well a Rapp Syd gillnet lifter for each boat. The centerline and side-sam- pling winches will be slip-ring capa- ble. Joe Starck, President of Great

Lakes Shipyard, said that he had been aware of Rapp machinery aboard the

R/V Spencer Baird, a Michigan

Department of Fish and Wildlife ves- sel. It also works the Great Lakes region and undertakes quite similar missions, including lake trout sur- veys. “While some of the operating assumptions are different here, there are enough commonalities that we felt Rapp was the right choice. And we had learned of Rapp’s recent

UNOLS and NOAA work,” he said.

Statoil, Siemens Ink

Tech Partnership

Statoil and Siemens signed a tech- nology development cooperation agreement. The partnership will ini- tially embrace wind power, subsea technology, electrical engineering people & companies

DeepOcean Wins Deal

On December 23, 2010 Statoil awarded DeepOcean a survey and pipeline construction support con- tract. The contract has a firm dura- tion of 3 months plus 3 monthly options. The work is planned to start during February 2011 in sup- port of Statoil's offshore pipeline installation activities at the Marulk and Smørbukk North East field developments. The scope of work includes a variety of survey and construction support activities cov- ering pre-lay survey of pipeline routes, lay support and touch- down monitoring during pipelay, installation of turnpoints and start- up anchors as well as pipeline flushing and pigging operations.

DeepOcean will charter in the new build vessel Volstad Surveyor for this work, specially designed for

ROV and survey support services as well as light construction work.

The vessel was built at Freire

Shipyard in Spain and was deliv- ered to Volstad Shipping in May 2010. Volstad Surveyor with main dimensions 85m x 18m, is fitted with a 70t AHC offshore crane,

ROV hangar, moon-pool, helicop- ter deck and has an accommoda- tion for 72 persons. Volstad

Surveyor is owned by Volstad

Shipping AS.