Page 7: of Offshore Engineer Magazine (Mar/Apr 2019)

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EDITOR’S LETTER

Energy Innovation s this edition of Offshore Engineer was closing down and headed to the printer I was returning from Southampton, England, and Ocean Business 2019, an event I have attended with my Ma- rine Technology Reporter hat on since it started in 2007. It is unquestionably the year’s biggest,

Abest and most in? uential meeting for subsea technology companies serving academia, defense and offshore energy.

While the event is a far cry from a true offshore energy show, a walk in and around the booths and on the docks at the National Oceanographic Center inside the Port of Southampton proved to deliver many famil- iar technologies and faces that serve the offshore energy business. To be frank, this group collectively and closely tracks its health with that of offshore energy. There are a handful of larger corporate entities dotting the exhibit ? oor ... Teledyne, Kongsberg and Forum, to name a few ... but by and large this is a group of medium to small companies, true innovators at devising the means to work ef? ciently in the world’s most inhospitable subsea environments.

While this is hardly scienti? c proof, there was a palpable buzz at Ocean Business, as the majority of at- tendees and exhibitors interviewed by our staff indicated that business is slowly turning positive. While an uptick in business and revenue is always nice, in the bigger picture the subsea sector is genuinely excited in that it sees green? eld opportunities in the ‘new norm’ that is offshore energy, an industry which is on the prowl for innovative technologies and techniques that will deliver measurable ef? ciencies and cost- savings, helping to lower the cost of offshore energy discovery and recovery.

In this edition and every day on OEDigital.com, Offshore Engineer’s editors and writers dispersed glob- ally seek to deliver exclusive insight on the emerging technologies that are designed to deliver ef? ciency.

If you turn the page you will see that we are starting fast with Elaine Maslin’s Google Translate for Oil

Wells, looking at Sensalytx, a startup that is harnessing arti? cial intelligence (AI) to allow oil companies to do more with the data (as well as the oil) they get from their wells. The discussion on data generally includes everything from quantity to integrity to security, but this discussion looks at what is – or in many cases what is not – done with the masses of information collected.

Another one of those technologies is covered in depth starting on page 32 in our feature entitled A Slid- ing Scale of Residency, which examines new means to keep unmanned underwater vehicles under the surface longer, for weeks, months and even years at time. This helps to dramatically reduce the number of human and support ship touches, and consequently, the cost.

While much of the discussion on the offshore recovery is anecdotal, our feature Drilling Down Deep starting on page 24 explores the impetus for renewed vigor in deepwater drilling and operations. Accord- ing to Wood Mackenzie the cost of developing new deepwater barrels has fallen by more than 50% since 2013, as project downsizing, a focus on subsea tiebacks and more ef? cient project execution have all conspired to help cut costs. With that, deepwater is garnering attention and investment.

Offshore Engineer and OE TV will occupy booth number 6604 at this year’s OTC in Houston. We wel- come your visit, or the chance to set up a meeting or a video interview in advance to discuss insights on your business, the challenges you face and the opportunities you see.

Gregory R. Trauthwein

Editorial Director & Associate Publisher [email protected] t: +1.212.477.6700 • m: +1-516.810.7405

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