Highlights of the Week

Subsea World News has put together a recap of the most interesting articles from the previous week (March 23 – March 29).

Naval Surface Warfare Center Panama City (NSWC PC) scientists have developed a prototype for a new life support system for divers.

The goal of the new system is to accelerate the deployment of Navy divers, increase safety, and also conserve helium, a valuable natural resource.

Fugro BV petitioned for winding up of Calecore last week after having denied several creditor restructuring proposals.

According to Calecore, experts are of the opinion that the current filing must be seen as a very aggressive move to limit their only credible integrated site survey competitor. Management of Calecore believes this to be a reflection on their current internal issues including the new Boskalis shareholding and significant loss of market share in EMEA & Asia over the past 18 months & the currently depressed market conditions.

FMC Technologies Inc. and Technip have signed an agreement to form an exclusive alliance and to launch Forsys Subsea, a 50/50 joint venture that will unite the skills and capabilities of two subsea giants.

After closing and upon launch of the joint venture, Forsys Subsea will have a workforce of 320 people and will be supported by the 58,000 employees of FMC Technologies and Technip. The company will be headquartered in London, with regional hubs in Oslo, Houston, Paris, Rio de Janeiro and Singapore.

Royal Boskalis Westminster N.V. (Boskalis) has increased its holding in Fugro N.V. to 25.1%.

Boskalis stresses that this is not a step towards making an offer. Boskalis views Fugro as an “interesting company” with strong market positions in its core activities. Earlier this year, Boskalis increased its holding in Fugro to 20 percent, which Fugro characterized as unsolicited stake building, insisting that the company values its independence.

Osbit Power has secured a contract to provide three sets of offshore well intervention equipment to Helix Energy Solutions.

According to Osbit Power, the project is the second largest order that the company has received, to date. Osbit will manufacture three sets of Intervention Tension Frames (ITFs) and Walk to Work access systems. The first two units will be delivered in 2016 for installation on Helix’s, under construction, Siem Helix 1 and 2 vessels.