Heerema Marine Contractors (HMC) announced the signing of a letter of intent with Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering Co., Ltd., Korea (DSME), for the building of a new Deep Water Construction Vessel. Jan Pieter Klaver, Chief Executive Officer of HMC: “With this new Deep Water Construction Vessel, HMC will reinforce its unique position in the deepwater pipelay market.” The newbuild represents an investment of USD 600-700 million. (more…)

The response to BP/Transocean’s Deepwater Horizon incident continues as responders have scheduled a controlled, on-location burn to begin at approximately 11 a.m. CDT today, a strategy designed to minimise environmental risks by removing large quantities of oil in the Gulf of Mexico following the 20 April explosion. (more…)

BP, as lease operator of Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252), continues to forge ahead with a comprehensive oil well intervention and spill response plan following the 22 April sinking of the Transocean Deepwater Horizon drilling rig 130 miles south-east of New Orleans. (more…)

The first drill riser buoyancy modules capable of withstanding nearly 350 bar pressure at 3,350 m (11,000 ft) below the surface, have been developed and manufactured by Trelleborg Offshore in response to the demands of deepwater exploration. The new syntactic foam buoyancy modules were designed and manufactured for Transocean Inc. for use in the Indian Ocean on their latest deepwater drillship, the ‘Dhirubhai Deepwater KG1′.  (more…)