Shortly after the crash, Rick Babicz, Product Manager for Benthos' Locator Products, received several calls from the agencies involved in recovery efforts. They believe there is a slight chance that the pingers may be active in the pile due to a combination of the water used to fight the fires at the scene and recent rainfall. Designed to go active upon immersion in water, the aviation pinger shorts out and triggers a switch that sends an acoustic signal every second for 30 days. The pingers are rated to 20,000 feet (6,000 meters).

The pingers are not designed to be remotely triggered. If the pingers survived the crash, fires and subsequent crush of the buildings and they are active, it is hoped that their signal will lead investigators to the location of the black boxes.

The Company's engineers and technicians immediately went into action and, within a day, produced a device that would be capable of detecting the pingers at a distance of more than 60 feet through debris. Since Benthos manufactures a wide variety of pingers, pinger receivers, transponders, and transponder interrogators designed for use underwater, Benthos was able to quickly produce the portable device currently being employed to sweep the pile.

Tests with active pingers have shown very good results, enabling authorities to hasten cleanup efforts while continuing the search for the pingers/black boxes. Currently, debris from the pile is being loaded onto trucks, which are then wetted down and swept by Benthos' receivers.

For more information about Benthos' Locator products including aviation pingers visit http://www.pingers.com or via http://www.benthos.com. Contact Frances Lewis-Souza, Marketing Coordinator, +508-563-1000, X550

The campaign involved a total of 11-site (3 x 3 km and 6 x 3 km) surveys over an eight week campaign beginning with three site surveys for Newfield on the 11th June 2001 concluding with the final two surveys for Santos on the 2nd August 2001. The vessel used for this extended campaign was the tried and trusted Mermaid Achiever. Utilizing Thales' local and global pool of experienced personnel, a total of 10-survey crew were provided, consisting of 4 surveyors, 4 engineers and 2 geophysicists.

The project acquired a massive amount of bathymetric and digital geophysical data including detailed seafloor imaging, sub seafloor structure (with respect to semi submersible anchoring) conditions and seafloor/sub-seafloor hazards. A number of seafloor features including dramatic topography, reflecting deeper faulting and regional tectonic activity were identified.

Geophysical and hydrographic sensors used during the eight week campaign included single beam echo sounding, digital dual frequency sidescan sonar, boomer and sparker sub bottom profiling, Thales dual DGPS, CODA DA 200 digital acquisition logging for all geophysical data enabling replay, reprocessing and mosaic production if required.

The multi-client campaign, equivalent to fourteen standard 3 x 3 km site surveys, was Thales' longest duration site survey campaign. With 8 geophysicists working on the interpretation of data acquired during the campaign in the Perth Data Centre, the final reporting stages are now complete.

Thales GeoSolutions has now conducted over 95% of the site surveys in the Timor Sea, Browse Basin and Northwest shelf over the past 3 years, becoming the preferred provider of geohazard site survey services to the offshore geophysical survey sector. Significantly, Thales has also secured the follow-on rig positioning contracts with OMV, Santos and Newfield. Thales has already received further expressions of interest from a number of new players and hopes to perform another such campaign in the near future.

For more details on future site survey campaigns, please contact Adil Ali at adil.ali@thales-geosolutions.com.

Scientists from both the Department of Oceanography and the Nautical Archaeology Program at TAMU will join MMS archaeologists in photographing and excavating the wooden-hulled sailing ship by using underwater robots called ROV's (remotely operated vehicles) deployed from both the submersible and surface support ships.

ExxonMobil, which first reported the discovery to the MMS, sponsored a preliminary expedition to photograph the site. ExxonMobil and its venture partner, BP, are providing funding for the upcoming archaeological investigation. This will be the first time in the Gulf of Mexico that a shipwreck this deep has ever been scientifically excavated.

The nearly half-mile deep wreck is located about 30 miles off the mouth of the Mississippi River. The lower part of the shipwreck is almost completely intact and sitting upright on the seafloor. The ship is about 60 feet long and its wooden hull is covered with thin copper sheets, a means used by shipbuilders from the end of the 1700's to the mid-1800's to protect ships from wood-eating marine organisms. Since copper sheathing was quite expensive, it is unusual to find it on small merchant vessels. There also is evidence that the ship burned. Planks recovered from the wreck site last February clearly were charred and have been identified as American white pine, which is native to the Atlantic coast north of Virginia. The name of the vessel or what it was doing off Louisiana is unknown, but scientists hope to solve this mystery next summer with a combination of state-of-the-art technology and old-fashioned research.

"Historic preservation is just one of the MMS's many responsibilities in protecting our offshore environment," explained MMS Regional Director Chris Oynes. "To meet this responsibility, MMS reviews nearly 1,700 planned wells and pipelines every year for their potential effect on archaeological sites on the Outer Continental Shelf. Because of this regulatory requirement, many historic shipwrecks have been discovered on the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Several shipwrecks have been investigated by MMS, including the Civil War Union gunboat USS Hatteras, the side-wheel steamer Josephine, and just this year the World War II German submarine the U-166 and the passenger freighter it sank, the S.S. Robert E. Lee."

MMS is the federal agency in the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the nation's oil, natural gas and other mineral resources on the outer continental shelf in federal offshore waters. The agency also collects, accounts for and disburses mineral revenues from federal and Indian leases. These revenues totaled nearly $8 billion last year and more than $110 billion since the agency was created in 1982. Annually, nearly $1 billion from those revenues go into the Land and Water Conservation Fund for the acquisition and development of state and federal park and recreation lands.

For more information, contact one of the following at MMS: Barney Congdon +504-736-2595, Caryl Fagot +504-736-2590, or Debra Winbush +504-736-2597. You can also visit their web site at http://www.mms.gov

Following its increasing popularity in Europe, Nowcasting Pro is being enthusiastically received by ships’ crews in the Gulf of Mexico: they find that its accurate forecasts, intuitive operation, ease of use and unambiguous display ensure that weather-based decisions are more easily made. The Gulf of Mexico service has been undergoing extensive client trials since the beginning of the year and this latest sale reflects ongoing confidence in the reliability of the forecasts. There are currently 12 systems operating in the Gulf of Mexico and all other clients and users confirm the accuracy of the data provided.

Being able to download user-selected data extremely rapidly by e-mail proxy server facility, satellite phone, cellphone or landline means that accurate, up to the minute relevant weather data is available economically almost anywhere within the service areas.

Technosphere, Inc. represents Nowcasting International Ltd. of Ireland in the Gulf of Mexico. For more details on this service please contact Technosphere, Inc. in Houston at +1-713-973-1910 or at info@t-sphere.com or visit their website at http://www.t-sphere.com

The contract includes drilling of one deepwater exploration well in 1350 meters of water in the Norwegian Sea. The estimated contract value is approximately US$ 19 million. The drilling period is estimated to approximately three months. Start-up of operations is scheduled in direct continuation of the drilling assignment for Amerada Hess, anticipated in August 2002.

Smedvig asa is an offshore drilling contractor headquartered in Stavanger, Norway. The company provides services within well construction and well services in the North Sea and South East Asia. Smedvig's main activities are divided into mobile units, platform drilling and tender rigs. Smedvig has a fleet of four modern drilling rigs, one deep water drillship and eight tender rigs. In addition, the company holds contracts for production drilling, well services and maintenance on fixed installations.

For the complete Businesswire news release, click here... . Contact Smedvig asa, Stavanger, Attn: Ole Gladhaug or Jim Datland, 47-51-50-99-19, or visit their website at http://www.smedvig.no or E-mail: smedvig@smedvig.no

Trimble recently introduced its new 3300 Total Station with DR (Direct Reflex) technology for improved productivity in surveying and engineering applications. The new 3300 DR is a high-performance option that works as a stand-alone measuring and stakeout instrument for data capture and field computations.

The DR measurement technique provides greater versatility of measurement than a traditional Total Station instrument by allowing surveyors to measure directly to any surface with high accuracy and without the need for a prism. The DR also allows the operator to measure objects up to 100 meters away that were previously impossible or difficult to measure without special accessories and measurement techniques. For more from Professional Surveyor, click here...

The 1200kHz ZedHed acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) combines shallow water bottom tracking and high resolution profiling to measure flow rates in estuaries, rivers and streams over ranges of 0.3 - 20 meters with a minimum resolution of 0.01m.

The new instrument may be boat-mounted, installed on a towed body or used in wading mode. It is particularly suitable for measuring net volumes of water transported downstream. This is essential for planning safe navigation and dredging programs; for flood defense design; to support civil engineering works; and to monitor abstraction rates. ZedHed will be widely used by water authorities, civil engineering contractors, dredging contractors and survey companies.

RDI's ZedHed measures just 228mm X 201mm, weighs 7kg and is powered by a 12V DC battery. It complements the existing RDI Rio Grande range of instruments for river measurements, one of which is used for depths to 20m, the second to 75m. More information from Peter Spain, RD Instruments. Tel: +1 (858) 693 1178 , Fax: +1 (858) 695 1459 or, Email: sales@rdinstruments.com

The first contract is for current measurements by moored arrays of instruments at two locations and by vessel-mounted acoustic Doppler current profiler cross-sections during transit to site. The first mooring will have two RDI ADCPs, seven Aanderaa RCM7 or RCM8 recording current meters with conductivity and temperature sensors, and an Aanderaa RCM9 current meter, complete with turbidity sensor, deployed just above the seabed. These instruments will profile the whole water column and provide information on possible turbidity currents.

The second mooring has four Aanderaa RCM7 recording current meters, again with conductivity and temperature sensors, spaced through the water column. Data from the moorings, which will be in place for up to a year, will also be used to refine existing extreme value estimates of currents for higher levels in the water column.

The vessel-mounted ADCP transits will provide additional water current information for the upper 100 metres or so of the water column across the continental shelf. This will help to define the extent of the westward-flowing undercurrent below the main, eastward-flowing, Guinea Current.

The second major contract is for the provision of real-time current measurements in support of exploration drilling at the location, due to start late in 2001 using the ultra-deepwater, semi-submersible rig Sedco Energy. For this, Fugro GEOS will use its RigADCP system with an RDI 38kHz ADCP. The system will have a profiling range of up to 1000m and is ideal for the depths of water involved. Data from the real-time measurements will be recorded and later analysed and reported to provide graphical interpretation of the currents as well as summary statistics, exceedence and occurrence statistics, maximum current speed profiles and harmonic analysis of selected depth cells. Fugro GEOS has over 20 years experience of oceanographic measurement and consultancy work, with over 50 oceanographic contracts in the West Africa region, from South Africa to Guinea, over the last 10 years alone.

More information from Peter Owrid, Fugro GEOS Ltd., Tel: +44 (0) 1793 725 766 Fax +44 (0) 1793 706 604, email: uk@geos.com

Well data collection and evaluation has been completed, and the well has been plugged and abandoned in accordance with Brazilian regulations. "We are pleased that the well had hydrocarbon shows and that the ANP [Agencia Nacional do Petroleo, Brazil's national petroleum agency] has extended the exploration term for this block for two years," said Dioclecio Araujo, president of Unocal do Brazil. "We will be meeting with the co- venturers to discuss plans for the block in 2002." Unocal said that further analysis will be required to determine whether or not the prospect can be commercial. The company expects to take a US$18 million pretax charge to earnings in the third quarter 2001 for Unocal's share of costs related to drilling the well.

Unocal holds a 30-percent interest in Block BES-2. Other participants include Petrobras and Mobil Exploracao e Desenvolvimento do Brasil Ltda., each with a 35-percent interest.

About Unocal Corporation
Unocal is one of the world's leading independent natural gas and crude oil exploration and production companies. The company's principal operations are located in North America (Gulf of Mexico region, Alaska and Canada) and in Asia (Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Azerbaijan). The company is also pursuing exploration programs in West Africa and Brazil.

In Brazil, Unocal, through Brazilian subsidiaries, is operator and holds a 35-percent working interest in Block BC-9, offshore Brazil in the Campos Basin; and, is operator with a 40.5-percent working interest in Block BM-ES-2, offshore Brazil in the Espirito Santo Basin. The company also has an interest in the Pescada Arabaiana oil and gas project in the Potiguar Basin.

For the PRNewswire online press release, click here... Unocal Corporation Web Site: http://www.unocal.com. Contact media, Teresa Covington, +1-281-287-7415, or investors, Robert Wright, +1-310-726-7665, both of Unocal Corporation

The lifting began on Monday morning after the submarine was prised out of the seabed mud, 100 metres (330 feet) from the surface. The operation was expected to last 10 hours if the Arctic weather remains calm. "The Kursk has risen from the ocean floor," said Larissa van Seumeren, spokeswoman for the Dutch salvage company Mammoet. "The vessel is completely loose now and free from mud. It came off quite easily, easier than we expected. We started to pull and there was almost no suction."

The Russian navy and salvage workers say the Kursk's reactors have been safely shut down and do not threaten the lifting operation. Radiation monitoring equipment is being used as the Kursk rises. Once at the surface, the Kursk is set to be latched to the bottom of the Dutch-owned Giant 4 barge. That ship will then transport the Kursk to a dry dock near Murmansk, Russia, where it will be examined. The Russian navy will also remove the remains of the crew and 22 Granit supersonic cruise missiles. The salvage operation does not yet include the submarine's nose. This has been detached from the rest of the vessel by salvage crews and may be lifted next year. Investigators believe that section, in which torpedoes were stored, may hold vital clues about the accident. It had been planned to raise the Kursk on September 15, but the operation has been repeatedly delayed by storms and technical problems.

A Russian investigatory commission has not yet publicly announced the cause of the tragedy. Kursk Recovery Operation http://www.kursk141.org. Full story, click here...

*** POSTPONED Oceanology Int. Pacific Rim, Singapore, Dec 4-6 ***