Success for ‘Deepwater Development’
More than 700 delegates and exhibitors attended Quest Offshore’s MCE Deepwater Development 2009 conference and exhibition held last week at the Bella Centre, Copenhagen (Denmark). Senior personnel from offshore operators, contractors and service/supply companies joined together. Despite the current ‘cautious’ market conditions, serious business was discussed.
The conference was told that recoverable conventional oil reserves in deep water is more than 160-300 bn bbl of oil and approximately 70% of that is in Brazil, the Gulf of Mexico, Angola and Nigeria. Speakers also made it clear that innovation and partnership are key to reducing the high cost of deep-water development.
www.questoffshore.com, www.subseario.com
Alliance to Address Societal Issues Three leading research centres based in Woods Hole (MA, USA) announce the creation of the Woods Hole Consortium, a new alliance that will bring their combined scientific power to bear on some of the major issues facing society today and spawn scientific growth and job opportunity on the South Coast of Massachusetts. The consortium comprises the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) and Woods Hole Research Center (WHRC), and focuses on the interlocking issues of climate change and ecosystem, health and human well-being. www.woodsholeconsortium.org Left to right: MBL director Gary Borisy, WHOI director Susan Avery and WHRC acting director Richard Houghton shake hands after signing the Memorandum of Agreement creating the Woods Hole Consortium (Photo courtesy of Tom Kleindinst, WHOI). Subocean Group Creates 75 New Jobs Subocean Group is doubling the size of its premises as staff numbers hit 175. The specialists in subsea cable lay and burial are taking an additional 5,400 square feet of office accommodation in the building next door to their headquarters at the subsea campus in Arnhall Business Park, Westhill (UK). Subocean has created 75 new jobs in the last six months and now employs 75 people onshore and 100 offshore with plans to add another 50 offshore personnel by the end of 2009 to service contracts already secured. www.suboceangroup.com/ Airborne Lasers Assess Flood Risk Highly accurate 3D digital maps, captured from aircraft-mounted lasers, are being used to assess the risk of flooding at critical utility sites across the UK. The project, undertaken by Ambiental on behalf of one of the UK’s largest water companies, used LiDAR data supplied by aerial survey specialist Bluesky to help examine the likelihood, extent and depth of potential flooding as part of a review of flood defence measures at each of the five sites. The Bluesky data are part of a 3D terrain map, available online, that covers most of England and Wales including all major urban centres, coastal areas and flood plains. www.bluesky-world.com
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