Highlights of the Week

Subsea World News has put together a recap of the most interesting articles from the previous week (October 13 – October 19).

The boss of a major airline believes missing flight MH370 may not have crashed in the Indian Ocean, and that probably control was taken of that airplane.

In an Interview with German magazine Der Spiegel, Emirates Airlines head Tim Clark has stated he is “totally dissatisfied” with results of the investigation so far and that the mystery of vanishing airplane raises a “degree of suspicion”.

Emirates boss believes that all the “facts” of this particular incident must be challenged and examined with full transparency. “Every single second of that flight needs to be examined up until it, theoretically, ended up in the Indian Ocean — for which they still haven’t found a trace, not even a seat cushion”, he said.

Substantial volumes of oil and gas remain in the subsurface of the Danish North Sea, but recovering them is technically complex and requires work above and below water.

Dan Bravo Rationalisation, a challenging three-year project that has reached its midway point, is an example of the complex subsurface and diving work regularly carried out by Maersk Oil’s Danish Business Unit.

The project, which will rebuild Maersk Oil’s first-producing platform, Dan Bravo, also involves the conversion of the manned platform into an unmanned platform and is the first of its kind in the Danish North Sea. The diving work with its challenging subsea removal and installation is an important part of the project.

OneSubsea, a Cameron and Schlumberger company, has been awarded a subsea production systems contract totaling more than $270 million for the Lakach deepwater project offshore Mexico. This is the first deepwater subsea field to be developed by Pemex.

The scope of supply for the seven well system includes subsea production equipment and tooling. OneSubsea will also provide installation and commissioning services. Deliveries are expected to begin in June 2016.

“OneSubsea is very honored to be awarded this contract from Pemex. The Lakach field is a significant development for Mexico, and OneSubsea looks forward to providing the best-in-class equipment and services that will help them optimize production,” stated Jack B. Moore, Cameron Chairman and CEO.

Inmarsat, a part of the Australian Transport Safety Bureau-coordinated search efforts, has published an article, ‘The Search for MH370’, in The Journal of Navigation. The article contains some of the flight path reconstruction analysis, and concludes that “significant uncertainty” remains about the final location of the Boeing 777.

The report stated that the aircraft could have flown in a relatively straight line travelling as far north as Kazakhstan or deep into the southern Indian Ocean, but also that it could have flown around in circles and ended up almost anywhere on the final arc.

“A potential flight path has been reconstructed that is consistent with the satellite data, but it is stressed that the sensitivity of the reconstructed flight path to frequency errors is such that there remains significant uncertainty in the final location,” the report concluded.

President and CEO Helge Lund has informed Statoil’s board of directors that he will resign. Helge Lund has chosen to leave Statoil to take up the position as CEO of another international oil and gas company.

The board of directors has appointed Eldar Sætre as acting president and CEO of Statoil with immediate effect.

“It has been a privilege to lead Statoil during ten very exciting years. This is a company with highly experienced and competent employees. I would like to thank everyone for our collaboration and their strong efforts for Statoil. Together we have created values for Statoil’s shareholders and the society, and strengthened our resource base at the Norwegian continentalshelf and internationally,” says outgoing CEO Helge Lund.