To further support the Gulf Of Mexico Marketplace and its clients, RESON is planning to offer bi-annual Multi-Beam Workshops and complete training classes throughout 2001 in Houston. Contact jeffg@reson.com for more information regarding workshops.

Additionally, RESON will be adding staff to fulfill these support and training requirements. Therefore, new permanent positions have become available at the Houston location.

Qualified sonar engineers are invited to send in their resumes. Candidates must be formally qualified with a BSc.EE or equivalent and have at least 5 years field experience. Contact information: Send resumes to Reson Inc. 10645 Richmond Avenue, Suite160 Houston Texas 77042-4908 USA or E-mail them to: Jeff Garlike at :jeffg@reson.com

Tenix LADS Corporation used its new generation Laser Airborne Depth Sounder, LADS MkII, to collect accurate, high-density data for a major oil exploration programme south of Barrow Island, on the North West Shelf off West Australia. Tenix LADS Corporation will license the data to a number of companies and organisations, which are interested in exploration and other activity in the Carnarvon Basin. LADS MkII uses leading edge laser, positioning and computer technology to collect accurate bathymetric data faster, more cost effectively and more safely than conventional survey systems. Surveying at rates of up to 300 square kilometres per day, LADS MkII can provide information suitable for vessel navigation within 24 hours of flying a shallow, unsurveyed area.

Tenix Managing Director, Paul Salteri, said the Australian developed airborne surveying technology was helping not only to map out treacherous waters for safer, more efficient navigation and exploration, but also to promote Australia as a leading technology provider.

The data has a number of uses. Seismic vessels may use the LADS data to navigate around potentially dangerous seabed features and acquire extremely valuable seismic data in areas in which operations are normally impossible because they are shallow and unsurveyed. Exploration companies therefore get more seismic data for their investment. The LADS data can also be made available for use in nautical charting for safe navigation and for coastal zone management applications. The total area surveyed was approximately 2,000 square kilometres and the survey was completed in just six weeks.

LADS MkII uses a pulsed laser mounted in a fixed wing aircraft to collect high density, digital bathymetric data that meets international standards of accuracy to depths of 70 metres. The original LADS system has worked with the Royal Australian Navy Hydrographic Service in routine operations since early 1993, and has surveyed over 65,000 square kilometres on the Australian continental shelf.

Tenix LADS Corporation, based in South Australia, is a division of Tenix Defence Systems, part of the Tenix Group, Australia's largest and most successful defence and high technology engineering contractor. Contact Mark Wellington or visit http://www.systems.tenix.com/LADS for more info.

Headquartered in the Costa Rican capitol city of San Jose, the expedition will make daily forays into the tropical rain forests and to higher elevations of the Costa Rican interior to conduct research and explore active volcanoes. When Web users log on to the site they will become virtual explorers as they travel along with the Scripps team and receive daily scientific reports from the field. "This is the first step in a thorough investigation of the volcanic range that arcs through Central America," said expedition leader and Scripps geochemist Dr. David Hilton, "We will sample volcanic lavas, gases, and thermal waters, and return with them to conduct chemical analyses of their contents in our laboratories. Our goal is to understand the way in which volcanic materials are cycled through the earth's crust via the processes of subduction and volcanic emission."

Users of all ages will be able to access a virtual encyclopedia of information about volcanoes and related geophysical phenomena and e-mail questions and comments directly to the researchers in the field. Children’s science activities for use at home or in the classroom will also be highlighted. The site will feature photographs that will document the expedition, along with videos of the multinational team of earth scientists and graduate students conducting field research. Log on to the Scripps Volcano Expedition Web site at http://scripps.ucsd.edu/volcano

The event is expected to attract researches and practioners from the industry, academics and government agencies worldwide who would convene to discuss issues relating to dredging for prosperity. The congress is organised by the Eastern Dredging Association in association with Port Klang Authority (PKA). More info at: http://thestar.com.my/maritime/story.asp?file=/2001/1/8/maritime/08nadred&sec=maritime

"A Saudi Arabian company is looking for an Environmental Consulting Company from Houston, Texas USA, for a joint venture in Saudi Arabia. The project calls for compliance with EPA and OSHA, and includes all petrochemical plants in Saudi Arabia. This is a multi-million dollar project and the consulting company will joint venture with Jal International in Saudi Arabia. The partnership will be 51% Saudi and 49% American Co. Contact OPP3@oil-report.com

The SeaBat 8160 is a new addition to the 8100 series of multibeam echosounders. Operating at 50Khz, with 150 degree swath coverage, and operational depth from 10M to 3000M, the system ensonifies the whole swath in a single ping, generating 126 simultaneous high resolution receive beams. The transmitter is pitched stabilised, while the receiver is roll stabilised. Furthermore, the system has been supplied with the option of sidescan imaging. The transducer arrays comprise of a linear receiver and transmit array mounted together on a support base. The T - shaped arrays geometry provides the basis for compact, high-resolution sonar, which is easily installed, for portable and hull mounts. The system is available with the new RESON 6042 Version 7 integrated Navigation software designed for Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems.

GSE Rentals can also supply the required ancillary equipment, such as the high specification TSS POS MV and Valeport 650 Sound Velocity probe. For full information and a rental quote contact Alan Cameron Tel: (44) 1224 771247 on Fax: (44) 1224 723116 or E Mail:info@gserentals.co.uk

By design of its products and by experience TEI has the know-how to integrate virtually any type of past and present sonar, multibeam or seismic equipment. The Portuguese Hydrographic Institute besides having selected Isis Sonar System also included an option to give a new like to their analog Klein 541 and 584 side scan sonars. Other options to interface new generation digital sonars, including Klein 5000 are under consideration.

Delph Seismic has also been selected to acquire data from a variety of seismic sources (boomer, sparker, CHIRP, sub-bottom profilers.). Seismic profiles will be processed with the new SGIS module (Seismic Georeferenced Interpretation System or Seismic GIS) allowing production of isocontour maps of geological reflectors and correlation of subsurface data with sonar mosaic or bathymetric map.

As a complement, seabed characterization based on texture analysis of the sonar mosaic will be performed with Sea Class, the sea floor classification module. TEI systems are the state-of-the-art choice for single- and multi-sensor data acquisition for offshore surveys with multibeam sonars, sidescans sonars, sub-bottom profilers and shallow-seismic systems, magnetometers, and gravity meters.

TEI also develops advanced data processing tools for each data type. For more information, please contact TEI at Tel: 1 831 722 7373 (USA) or 33 1 44 19 65 80 (France) or visit the TEI website at http://www.tritonelics.com

Advanced Products Company recently teamed with Cameron (a world leader in subsea oil and gas production and control equipment) to develop a sealing system for the HydraQuad® Subsea Coupler. The HydraQuad is a pressure-balanced, metal-sealing coupler that incorporates a unique four-way valve design. As a major seal supplier for over 40 years, Advanced Products is a proud family-owned organization, with deeply rooted traditions of quality and service. Visit http://www.advpro.com for more information.

Baker Hughes Incorporated (NYSE:BHI - news; PCX:BHI)(EBS:BHI) announced yesterday that the international rig count for December 2000 was 705, up 5 from the 700 counted in November 2000 and up 131 from the 574 counted in December 1999. The international offshore rig count for December 2000 was 201, up 5 from the 196 counted in November 2000 and up 42 from the 159 counted in December 1999.

The US rig count for December 2000 was 1,097 up 30 from the 1,067 counted in November 2000 and up 299 from the 798 counted in December 1999. The Canadian rig count for December 2000 was 410 up 48 from the 362 counted in November 2000 and up 25 from the 385 counted in December 1999.

The worldwide rig count for December 2000 was 2,212, up 83 from the 2,129 counted in November 2000 and up 455 from the 1,757 counted in December 1999. Click on http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/010108/tx_baker_h.html for details.

Warm winter weather in Europe and restored inventories in North America have depressed oil prices since they scaled new peaks in the autumn, and the 11-member Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries reached consensus to slash production to prevent the price of a barrel falling out of the US$22-28 range. For full details visit: http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20010108/428621.html