AGM & Dinner

AGM and Members’ Dinner

5 December 2013 London, UK

 

Report

 

Flyer

 

Report

 

AGM Award Winners 2013The SUT held its AGM, annual awards ceremony and members’ dinner at the stunning location of the Trinity House, London (situated overlooking the Tower of London and River Thames) on 5 December 2013. The AGM began at 6.00 pm, followed by the annual SUT awards ceremony honouring those who have made exceptional contributions to underwater technology.

During the awards ceremony, SUT Fellowships were awarded to Andy Barwise and Keith Broughton and Chris Milner. Other Fellowships were awarded to overseas members Earl Doyle in Houston, Trond Olsen in Norway, and Norman O’Rourke and Ian Wilson who are both in Perth.The Society wishes them all many congratulations on their awards.

The Houlder Cup for outstanding contribution to underwater operations was awarded to Mr Mike O’Meara for outstanding contribution to Underwater Operations. Mike O’Meara has a long and successful involvement in the subsea world. He started his career in the Royal Navy and, after training as a clearance diver, was involved in a variety of naval diving operations before leaving the RN in 1975. Mike continued diving for a number of commercial diving companies before joining the newly formed Wharton Williams in 1978 as a diving superintendent. In this capacity he was responsible for the offshore management of diving support vessels and project teams and the implementation of subsea projects in the North Sea, Middle East and Asia. These projects involved a range of commercial diving techniques including air, gas, saturation and lockout submarines. In 1981 he was responsible for the successful salvage of £40 million of gold bullion from the Second World War British cruiser HMS Edinburgh resting in 800 feet water depth in the Barents Sea. After 23 years as an Offshore Manager, in 1991 Mike was tasked with reviewing theh Cullen report and the impending UK Safety Case Regulations following the Piper “A” disaster. The outcome of this work was the formal introduction to the company of risk identification and assessment as a specific planning tool in support of safe operations.

Through the years many changes in company ownership and structure have taken place. These have involved the following leading subsea engineering and construction companies: Wharton Williams, Brown & Root, Rockwater, Subsea Offshore, Halliburton Subsea and DSND into the present day Subsea 7. Mike is Vice-President responsible for Health, Safety, Environmental and Quality Strategy for Subsea 7.

The SUT wishes Mike many congratulations on his award.

The SUT Oceanography Award was awarded to Dr Steve Rintoul in recognition of his contribution to the field of oceanography. Dr Rintoul is a physical oceanographer who works for the CSIRO in Hobart, Tasmania. He has published more than 65 papers in refereed journals and books, with more than 1800 citations. He is on the editorial board of Ocean Dynamics and the Journal of Marine Research. In 2005 Dr Rintoul was awarded the inaugural Georg Wust Medal by the German Society of Marine Research. He was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2006 and was made a CSIRO Fellow, CSIRO’s highest recognition for scientific achievement.

In 2007 Dr Rintoul graduated with Honours in Physics from Harvard College, USA, and obtained his Doctorate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program, USA. He is Co-chair of the International Climate of Antarctic and Southern Ocean (CASO) research programme, Co-chair of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Expert Group on Oceanography, Leader of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Southern Ocean Implementation Panel, and was Acting Chief of CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research, May-November 2009. Dr Rintoul’s research has laid the foundation for the growing recognition of the importance of the Southern Ocean in the climate system. For example, he has shown that the Southern Ocean plays a critical role in the global overturning circulation that controls climate. He is internationally recognised as a leading authority on the circulation of the Southern Ocean and how it affects global climate systems. A sign of that recognition is that in 2012 he was awarded the prestigious $100,000 Martha T Muse Award of the US Tinker Foundation, for Science and Policy in Antarctica.

Dr Rintoul’s research has made a profound contribution to our scientific understanding of the Southern Ocean and of Antarctica’s role in the global system. His work has provided new understanding of the structure, dynamics and variability of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, the largest ocean current on Earth. He has also shown how the Southern Ocean circulation links the shallow and deep layers of the ocean to form a global network of ocean currents that strongly influence climate patterns. His research has provided new insights into the nature, causes and consequences of Southern Ocean change. Dr Rintoul’s leadership has been critical to advancing coordinated international investigation of the Southern Ocean and to promoting long term Southern Ocean observing systems.

SUT was very pleased to award Steve the SUT Oceanography Award for 2013.

The SUT President’s Award was awarded to Mr David Brookes in recognition of his enormous contribution, over many years, to the SUT.

With over 40 years of industry experience, David started as an undergraduate apprentice at Esso UK in 1966 at Fawley Refinery. He then went on to work with rotating equipment vendor Ingersoll Rand and then Selection Trust mining company in the UK, Zambia, Peru and Iraq. David joined BP in 1980 and spent time on subsea and coal slurry pipelines systems, followed by becoming Manager of the Marine Systems Group. He was Project Engineering Manager for the BP Chemicals Indonesian Polyethylene Project based in Japan from 1989 to 1991, and then spent a period as BPX Global Subsea Consultant. In 1994, David transferred to the Atlantic Frontier Asset in Aberdeen, initially as Technical Manager and later as Subsea Project Manager for the Foinaven Development. After leading a team of pipeline, multiphase and subsea engineers as part of BPX’s shared technical resource, he became BP Amoco’s Team Leader for Deepwater Developments in the Upstream Technology Group in 1999. In 2001 he became a Senior Advisor in BP EPTG and moved to managing the overall BP Deepwater Facilities Technology Development Programme.

In 2006 David moved to BP’s Upstream Engineering Leadership as their Chief Engineer for Subsea and Floating Systems and is currently a Senior Advisor. David holds a BSc in Mechanical Engineering and is a Chartered Engineer. Also he is a FIMechE, FIMarEST, a member of the SPE, a Past President and Honorary Fellow of SUT, and an SUT Registered Subsea Engineer.

Also he is a past Chairman of DOT, a member of the Organising Committee for SUT International Conferences and the MCE Deepwater Development Conference. He has published more than 30 papers and presentations, including three papers to OTC Conferences and three patents.

David was awarded the SUT’s David Partridge Award in 1995 and the Subsea UK 2009 Engineer of the Year Award. For his many achievements it gave SUT great pleasure to award David the SUT President’s Award for 2013.

The AGM and awards ceremony was followed by a drinks reception and then dinner, attended by around 97 members and guests. After dinner, a game of ‘Heads and Tails’ was led by Ian Gallett and was won by Jodi Roberts. The game raised a fantastic sum of £1195 for the Fund, and all participants were thanked for their contributions

 

Launch of Guidance Notes for the Planning and Execution of Geophysical and Geotechnical Ground Investigations for Offshore Renewable Energy Developments

The past few years have seen a proliferation of offshore renewable energy projects including wind, wave and tidal developments. Some of the more significant risks that the developers of such projects face are the hazards and uncertainties that ground conditions present to project development, design, construction and operation. The impact of these risks can be exacerbated by the increasing size and complexity of offshore renewable developments.

The primary sources of information that are used to minimise and mitigate the risks posed by ground conditions and geohazards are complimentary geotechnical (intrusive) and geophysical (remote sensing) methods. To date there has been little guidance on the use of such techniques for investigating ground conditions for an offshore renewable development project. As a result, the offshore site investigation and geotechnics (OSIG) committee of the Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) have produced a set of guidance notes for such investigations. These guidance notes provide advice for the planning and execution of such investigations to developers, stakeholders, consultants and contractors involved in such projects. It is intended that the advice given will enable developers to formulate suitable strategies to mitigate the ground condition risks through the appropriate use of ground investigation methods.

The launch of these guidance notes comprised of a brief introduction to OSIG and the work that it does by its Chairman, Andy Barwise (Gardline Geosciences). This was then followed by a presentation of the guidance notes by the Chairman of the OSIG sub-committee that produced the guidance notes – Mick Cook (MCL Consultancy).

The presentations were followed by a wine and finger buffet reception kindly sponsored by Lloyd’s Register.

Click here for the presentation –  SUT_140714-Offshore-Renewables-Guidance-Notes-Launch

Click here for a the flyer – SUT_140714_OSIG

Click here for a FREE digital download of the Guidance Notes – OSIG-Guidance-Notes-2014_web

The South West and its Role in Offshore Energy

Introduction – Peter Larkin, LR-Senergy

Opening Address – TBC, Energy Pundit
Providing an overview and back drop to the broader ‘energy debate’ with possibly a few polemics thrown in to add some flavour to proceedings.

Merlin Hyman, Regen SW
Marine / Offshore Energy within the South West
presentation
An overview of how the South West contributes to the national (and beyond) Energy equation – with a particular focus on marine / offshore renewables.

John Sewell, Marine Minerals Ltd
Minerals & Commodities : A recent South West perspective
presentation
A look at a recent initiative to recover economically strategic trace elements from mining waste deposited on the seabed off the Cornish coast. Highlighting some interesting technological developments and economic drivers.

Phil Wilkinson, Marine Current Turbines (Siemens-MCT)
A South West based Tidal Turbine Developer
presentation
A brief overview of tidal turbine technology, with a focus on the challenges and requirements of foundation design in tidal races, including an overview of the lessons learned during geotechnical investigation at MCT’s Anglesey Skerries tidal array site.

Sam Whitaker, Fugro Seacore
Developments in XL Drilling and Foundation Installation
presentation
A brief state-of-the-art review of where developments have been made in terms of expanding technology to support the installation of large Monopiles for the marine / offshore energy sector from a leading and innovative South West based Geotechnical and Marine/Offshore Installation Contractor.

Francis Buckley, LR-Senergy (Quaternary Expert)
Seabed and shallow geological geohazards of the Celtic Sea and Porcupine Basin regions – some issues regarding their evaluation
presentation
A brief look at some of the key regional geohazard issues that can affect energy developments, what risks they may pose and how this risk might be quantified and mitigated by appropriate site investigation.

Justin Hawkins, Maring Geomatics Ltd, Offshore Wind Developer
Delivery of an Offshore Wind Farm
presentation
An overview of the expectations and challenges of planning, consenting, installing and operating a large (5>MW Turbines) offshore wind farm.

Unmanned Underwater Vehicle Showcase

The Society for Underwater Technology (SUT) is delighted to announce that it plans to run a conference covering the use of remote technology underwater alongside the very successful Oceanology International China exhibition and conference, regarded as Asia’s premier event for ocean science and marine technology. The SUT is OI China’s Learned Society Patron.

London & South of England Branch Annual Summer Dinner

Programme

18.45 –
Board the P.S. Elizabethan

19.00 –

Leaves London Eye Pier

Please ensure tha you and your guest(s) are on board by 19.00 or, as the saying goes, you will have ‘missed the boat’!

Reception Drinks
Heads andTails – £10 per head in

aid of the Educational Support Fund. Envelopes on table for entry fee. £200 cash paid to the winner

19.45 –
Dinner will be served whilst cruising theThames

23.00 –
Return to the London Eye Pier

The Qualification of New Technology

As the subsea energy industry moves into deeper waters and more difficult operating environments, outside existing industry experience, additional technical risk and uncertain reliability performance is introduced. A similar challenge is faced with the deployment of new and evolving marine renewable technologies. A defined qualification process is required to manage the risk associated with the first/early/deployment of the technology. This applies as equally to the introduction of genuinely new technology, as it does to ‘stretching the envelope’ of existing hardware in a new environment.

INEC 2014

Welcome Reception and Dinner

At the end of day one all participants are cordially invited to a Welcome Reception and Dinner to be held at the Marine Establishment Amsterdam. This will give everyone an opportunity to visit the exhibition stands, ship models, poster displays and demonstrators before enjoying an informal dinner with colleagues, friends and new acquaintances.

HNLMS Tromp (F803)

HNLMS TrompHNLMS Tromp is one of four De Zeven Provinciën-class Air-defence and Command Frigates (LCF) built by Damen Schelde Naval Shipbuilding. The Frigates perform two important roles: A command role in facilitating the operations of the deployable and operational staff, and providing anti air warfare (AAW) protection for an entire fleet. The most striking characteristics are the ships’ stealth technology and high degree of automation of the ships’ systems which means that they can be operated by a ship’s company of just over 200.

Conference Reception

The Conference Reception for INEC 2014 will be hosted by the Royal Netherlands Navy aboard HNLMS Tromp. This is a unique opportunity for all participants to visit this innovative class of ship and to learn more about the role of the Royal Netherlands Navy worldwide. HNLMS Tromp will be moored in Amsterdam and transportation will be provided for all participants from the Marine Establishment Amsterdam at the close of sessions on day two.Industrial visitDue to the operational demands of HNLMS Tromp, it is regretted that the Industrial Visit which was scheduled on Friday 23 May 2014 has been cancelled. HNLMS Tromp still remains at the heart of the INEC 2014 programme with the Conference Reception hosted by the Royal Netherlands Navy taking place aboard the ship on Wednesday 21 May 2014 commencing at 1800 hours.