DNV Acquires Oil Spill Cleanup Company NPS
In Preparation for Arctic Operations
Classification society Det Norske Veritas (DNV) acquired Harstad, Norway-based Norwegian Petro Services (NPS) to begin preparing oil spill solutions for oil and gas operations in the Arctic. The companies signed the deal on Monday.

NPS, which consists of five professionals, will establish an organization in Harstad to supplement its existing maritime activities there.

DNV will combine its environmental risk and oil spill preparedness analyses with NPS's experience in planning and organizing oil spill preparedness, said Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, chief operating officer of DNV's Norway, Russia and Finland division.

"The acquisition of NPS in Norway and its recognized expertise will play an important role in our activities in this field," he said.

Oil and gas operations in the northern areas introduce several new risk elements to the industry: the distances are greater, the climate is cold, it is dark for a lot of the year and there may be no infrastructure.

"We've found a niche in the coastal and shoreline preparedness sector and have specialist expertise in planning and organizing preparedness in addition to strategy and technology development," Stein Thorbjørnsen, the general manager of NPS, said.

Caption: Remi Eriksen, CEO at DNV Maritime and Oil & Gas, and Hans Petter Dahlslett of NPS sign the contract.

Source: DNV press release

Proserv Releases Updated Multistring Cutting Tool
For Well Abandonment
Proserv (Aberdeenshire, Scotland) unveiled on Wednesday its next-generation subsea cutting tool that provides complete well severance and can reduce in-well operational time up to 50 percent.

Measuring approximately 3 meters long and 20 centimeters in diameter, the multistring cutting tool is a customizable internal multistring conductor cutter that provides complete well severance from deployment to cutting operation and recovery within 12 hours.

The tool's redesigned cutting head now includes wireless data transmission technology, which removes the need for data cables and eliminates the threat of cable damage while improving control.

MSC tool development began more than two years ago in response to client demand for a subsea cutting device that could sever fully grouted or nongrouted casing strings. To date, the MSC tool has successfully severed 42 wells, Proserv said.

Caption: The next-generation multistring cutting tool from Proserv.

Source: Proserv press release

OSIL Introduces Hydrocarbon-Monitoring Buoy
Havant, England-based Ocean Scientific International Ltd. (OSIL) launched on Monday its Oil in Water Monitoring Buoy designed to detect as little as 0.1 parts per million of crude or fine oil in coastal and inshore areas, such as oil refineries, ports and harbors, and marinas.

The buoy, equipped with a Turner (Sunnyvale, California) Cyclops-7 submersible sensor, is made for emergency and short-term monitoring deployments of up to 24 months in depths up to 50 meters, depending on application and location. Weighing 25 kilograms and measuring 2 meters long with a 60-centimeter diameter, it is deployable by one person from a small vessel. Alert messages for unexpected rises in hydrocarbon levels or other user-defined parameters can be transmitted to mobile devices, vessels or other remote stations.

The system is powered by two 5-watt solar panels and equipped with battery backup, navigation and warning lights, and any other markings as necessary. A range of telemetry options—UHF/VHF, GSM, GPRS and satellite—are available.

OSIL said it has received significant interest in the system, particularly for applications that would use the buoy for monitoring crude oil sheens to reduce the number of required aerial overflights.

Caption: OSIL's Oil in Water Monitoring Buoy.

Source: OSIL

Senate, House Committees Pass Bill to Fund
$44 Million for MHK, $37.2 Million for Offshore Wind
The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives appropriation committees approved their respective fiscal year (FY) 2013 energy and water development bills that, if passed, would provide $44 million for marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) technology and $15 million for conventional hydropower within the Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Water Power program. The total budget for the water power program would be $59 million.

The bill also sets aside $95 million for wind energy, which includes $37.2 million for offshore wind technologies, such as freshwater, deepwater, shallow-water and transitional depth installations.

The FY 2013 budget request initially allotted $20 million total to the water power program, with $15 million, or 75 percent, of the funding to MHK technology and $5 million, or 25 percent, of the funding to conventional hydropower. The committee wrote that it believes the budget request had been inadequate for both categories of technology, but it accepted the proposed ratio of funding.

The bill would provide up to $5 million for the construction of necessary testing infrastructure for MHK systems, and encourages the agency to coordinate with the Department of Defense and National Marine Renewable Energy Centers for ocean renewable energy demonstrations.

Additionally, the bill directs the Department of Energy to provide no less than $20 million for competitive demonstrations of MHK technologies. No later than October 31, the department will be required to provide a briefing to the committee on the report required in FY 2010 outlining the department's research and development goals for this program during FY 2011 through 2015, along with efforts to further validate the economic and technical viability of a variety of MHK technologies.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California introduced the bill last week.

Source: Appropriations bill

DV Chikyu Sets Deep-Sea Drilling Record of 7,740 Meters
The DV Chikyu last Thursday broke a deep-sea drilling record in the Pacific Ocean, boring 7,740 meters below the sea surface, vessel operator Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) said. The previous record of 7,049.5 meters had been set during Deep Sea Drilling Program Leg 60 to the Marianas Trench in 1978, which drilled a borehole 15.5 meters below the seafloor in a water depth of 7,034 meters.

The record-setting borehole is the first drilled on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 343, also known as the Japan Trench Fast Drilling Project (JFAST). The goal of JFAST is to understand the 30-to-50-meter fault slip that occurred in the shallow portion of the subduction zone during the 2011 Tohoku earthquake by sampling the fault to analyze its physical properties and taking temperature measurements to estimate the frictional stress during the earthquake.

"It is impressive that signals from the instruments near the drill bit can be sent through 7 kilometers of mud and water by acoustic pulses. This telemetry system had never been used before over such a long distance," James J. Mori, co-chief scientist and professor at Kyoto University, wrote in a report on the DV Chikyu's website.

The Chikyu had been anchored about 220 kilometers off Oshika Peninsula, Miyagi Prefecture, the Yomiuri Shimbun said.

Caption: Monica Wolfson, a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, points to the logging data on the monitor as the Chikyu's drill surpasses 7,079 meters below the sea surface. The record-breaking depth is 7,740 meters.

Source: Yomiuri Shimbun, JAMSTEC

US Researchers Search for
Cause of Asian Tiger Shrimp Invasion
The recent rise in sightings of non-native Asian tiger shrimp off the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts has NOAA and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) scientists working to determine the cause of the increase and the possible consequences for native fish and seafood in those waters. Reports of Asian tiger shrimp rose tenfold in 2011, NOAA said last week.

Government researchers are working with state agencies from North Carolina to Texas to look into how this species from Indo-Pacific, Asian and Australian waters reached U.S. waters, and what the increase in sightings means for native species. The research will examine shrimp collected from the Gulf and Atlantic coasts to look for subtle differences in the shrimps' DNA, which could offer clues to their origin. This is the first look at the genetics of wild caught Asian tiger shrimp populations found in this part of the U.S.

"We're going to start by searching for subtle differences in the DNA of Asian tiger shrimp found here—outside their native range—to see if we can learn more about how they got here," said USGS geneticist Margaret Hunter. "If we find differences, the next step will be to fine-tune the analysis to determine whether they are breeding here, have multiple populations, or are carried in from outside areas."

The cause of the rapid increase in sightings remains uncertain, NOAA said. The shrimp may have escaped from aquaculture facilities, although there are no longer any known Asian tiger shrimp farms presently in operation in the United States. It may have been transported in ballast water from ships or possibly arrived on ocean currents from wild populations in the Caribbean or other locations.

As with all non-native species, there are concerns over the potential for novel avenues of disease transmission and competition with native shrimp stocks, especially given the high growth rates and spawning rates compared with other species.

The USGS has been tracking reports of Asian tiger shrimp since they first came to the attention of marine scientists and resource managers in 1988, when nearly 300 of them were collected off the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida within three months. Scientists tracked the cause back to an isolated incident that accidentally caused an estimated 2,000 animals to be released from an aquaculture facility operating at that time in South Carolina.

It was not until 18 years later that reports of the non-native shrimp resurfaced. In 2006, a commercial shrimp fisherman caught a single adult male in Mississippi Sound near Dauphin Island, Alabama. Within months, additional specimens were noted in North Carolina's Pamlico Sound, Louisiana's Vermilion Bay, and other parts of Florida and the Carolinas. The species was later reported off the coasts of Georgia, Mississippi and Texas in 2008, 2009 and 2011, respectively.

Scientists have not yet officially deemed the Asian tiger shrimp "established" in U.S. waters, and no one is certain what triggered the recent round of sightings. With so many alternative theories about where these shrimp are coming from and only a handful of juveniles reported, it is hard for scientists to conclude whether they are breeding or simply being carried in by currents.

Anyone who sees one or more shrimp suspected to be an Asian tiger shrimp is asked to note the location and report the sighting to the USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species database. NOAA requests that those who come across the shrimp freeze a specimen, if possible, to help confirm the identity and contribute to a tissue repository maintained by the agency.

Caption: Asian tiger shrimp. (Photo credit: Ryan Werner)

Source: NOAA press release

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