by Matthew Braga (Bloomberg) Until recently, oil and gas kept robots moving in more ways than one. Fossil fuel companies looking to speed up exploration, drilling, construction, and maintenance work turned to heavy-duty underwater drones known as remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, to keep their wells afloat. By last year the global market for ROV operations—mostly contract … [Read more...]
New Motion Compensated Gangway Will Have You Walking Straight to Work
The Netherlands-based Van Aalst has unveiled a new motion compensated gangway system that promises workability across a wide array of offshore platforms even in waves up to 3.5 meters. Van Aalst calls the new system "Safeway", adding roll compensation, vertical height adjustment and a weight balanced boom construction to the gangway types now dominating the market. The Safeway … [Read more...]
Enabling Production from the Lower Tertiary: SBM Offshore’s Very High Pressure Swivel
The word swivel probably doesn't conjure up an image in your head of something amazing or all that interesting, however for those that work on, or operate ship-shaped floating production vessels, swivels take on a whole new meaning. As the wind and current change, a ship-shaped production vessel such as an FPSO weathervanes around a buoy all-the-while producing hydrocarbons … [Read more...]