Highlights of the Week

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

Wallsend-based manufacturer of subsea vehicle systems, Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD), will cut 70 to 80 jobs across its business, the company said Wednesday.

The news comes as SMD’s largest order in history for two suites of cable laying and burial equipment, has been suspended due to the rejection of an export license as a result of current sanctions in place for Russia.

Subsea 7 has recently appointed AOS as their Australian marine manning and personnel logistics provider.

AOS, headquartered in Perth, will support Subsea 7 on its forthcoming Australian projects, on-board their subsea support vessel Seven Eagle. In addition, AOS will provide a number of back deck personnel to the project through their joint venture with Kuiper.

Dutch ship owner C-Bed has contracted Wärtsilä Ship Design to supply the design for rebuilding its Seismic Survey Vessel, the ‘Viking II’, for use as a hotel vessel.

According to Wärtsilä, the rebuilt ship will be used to accommodate and transfer service personnel working on offshore wind farms.

The latest addition to Fugro’s fleet, the geotechnical drilling vessel ‘Fugro Scout’, was baptized November 20 in Rotterdam by Marian Geise, wife of Joost Geise, commercial director of Fugro Offshore Geotechnics.

Tebma Shipyards delivered Fugro’s new vessel, earlier this year at its shipyard at Malpe, India, following the delivery of its sister ship Fugro Voyager in 2013.

Aker Solutions won a framework agreement to provide maintenance and modifications services at BP-operated oil and gas fields offshore Norway.

The contract has a fixed period of five years valued at as much as NOK 3.2 billion. It also contains options to extend the agreement by as many as four years. The accord starts on December 1, 2015 on expiration of an existing agreement for similar services, Aker Solutions informed.