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50 st / March 2016 www.sea-technology.com Scottish Offcials Visit Bibby Offshore Bibby Offshore hosted Secretary of State for Scotland David Mundell and Scotland Offce Minister Andrew Dunlop in January as they announced a new trading partnership between Aberdeen and the Mozambique town of Pemba. Mundell and Dunlop formally an- nounced the move during their visit, when they met with representatives of the offshore industry and Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Council. A tour was conducted of The Han- gar, Bibby Offshore's 50,000-sq. ft. purpose-built state-of-the-art work- shop and warehouse facility. Separately, a £250 million City Region Deal for Aberdeen was an- nounced by Prime Minister David Cameron, which will see the U.K. and Scottish governments jointly invest in the area. The City Region Deal agree- ment includes funding for an energy innovation center and the expansion of Aberdeen Harbor to help the city compete for oil and gas industry de- commissioning work. Protea Delivers Winch For Man-Riding Ops Protea has further expanded its product range with the delivery to Norway of its frst winch certifed for man-riding operations for installation on a jack-up rig. The winch is fully compliant with DNV-OS-E101, NORSOK standards R-002 and R-003 and is also CE marked and approved for operations in ATEX Zone 1. The winch has an SWL of 150 kg and can operate at speeds up to 60 m/min. Outlook for Oil, Gas Industry in 2016 One-third of U.S. respondents are concerned that they do not have a strategy in place to maintain innova- tion in a declined market, according to a new research report published by DNV GL, which reveals that skills shortages are seen as a barrier to growth and an increasing concern throughout the U.S. More than half of the respondents believe organiza- tions are taking a short-term approach to skills and career development. "A New Reality: the outlook for the oil and gas industry in 2016," a DNV GL report based on a global survey of 921 senior professionals in the sec- tor, shows that an increased portion of U.S. respondents see cost manage- ment as the top priority in 2016. The majority believe that oil prices will remain lower for longer, which ulti- mately leads to continued pressure on cost management. Key fndings in the research re- port include: 38 percent still believe their company is taking a long-term approach to innovation and R&D; 28 percent of respondents expect to see additional job losses, especially in the publicly traded sector; and 60 percent believe that operators will in- creasingly push to standardize their operations. Low oil prices and the weak global economy are seen by U.S. respon- dents as the two biggest barriers to growth in 2016, and a growing regu- latory burden is also cited by 21 per- cent of U.S. respondents. One-third of U.S. respondents listed subsea tech- nologies as the top new or emerging technology impact area for 2016. MMT Contract for OTEC NEMO MMT was awarded a contract for the OTEC (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) NEMO project by DCNS. This project is jointly developed by DCNS and its partners with the pur- pose of characterizing the geophysi- cal and geotechnical context of the area of an offshore power plant with a foating platform and a potential ca- ble route to the town of Bellefontaine in the western coast of Martinique. This foating platform is anchored in the sea and will use the tempera- ture difference between the warm wa- ter at the surface and the cold water in the depths to produce nonintermit- tent, carbon-free electricity. MMT will conduct the survey with resources from the joint venture with Reach Subsea, including a DP2 ves- sel equipped with a work-class ROV mounted with a geophysical setup. The project is scheduled for two months in the frst quarter of 2016. Subsea Cable Grab For Repair Projects Pharos Offshore successfully com- pleted a diver-less export cable repair for London Array using the Subsea Hydraulic Cable Grab, leading to fur- ther work for this technology. The new project involves Basslink, a subsea cable connecting George Town in Tasmania and Loy Yang in Victoria, Australia. There is a possible fault with the cable, which is approx- imately 100 km off the Tasmanian coastline in Bass Strait. Using the Subsea Hydraulic Cable Grab and a team of personnel from Pharos, the cable will be recovered for repair. Pharos delivered a work package with the rapid mobilization of expertise and equipment to locate and recover the subsea cable. JIP to Develop Codes for Offshore Cable, Pipe Laying Aquatic Engineering & Construc- tion Ltd. is working with DNV GL and other organizations in the subsea supply chain on a joint industry proj- ect (JIP) to develop a set of guidelines to be incorporated into new or exist- ing DNV GL Offshore Standards or Recommended Practices. The project will address the cur- rent lack of coherent standards for the specifcation, design, manufac- ture, procurement and approval of equipment intended for use in off- shore cable and pipe-laying opera- tions. The project phases are: Phase One—mapping the big picture to provide a common, system-level understanding of the equipment re- quired for the successful laying of ca- bles and pipes; Phase Two—mapping the detail to focus on the individual components of the system to identify their inputs, outputs and interaction with other system components; and Phase Three—the publication of a DNV GL Standard for Certifcation or Recommended Practice. Phase One participants include: Allseas Engineering; Amclyde Nor- son Engineering; Aquatic Engineer- ing & Construction Ltd.; IHC En- gineering Business; IHC SAS BV; MAATS Tech Ltd.; NLI Offshore & Marine Products AS; Parkburn Pre- cision Handling Systems Ltd.; Reel SAS (IMECA); Saipem Group; Subsea 7; and Technip UK Ltd. ST offshore oil & ocean engineering